India remains fastest-growing economy in present global scenario, despite IMF projections: Sitharaman

India remains the fastest growing economy in the world and the central government is making every effort to spur growth, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday, days after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed the country's growth projection to 6.1 percent.

Speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, Sitharaman said she "cannot underestimate" the potential that India is showing despite the current global scenario.

"The IMF reduces the growth for all global economies. It reduces the growth for India too. But even otherwise, India is still growing as the fastest growing economy," Sitharaman said.

"The point cannot be missed that India is still growing the fastest in the given global scenario. I wish it can be more. I wish it can grow faster, and I will make every effort to make it grow faster. But the fact remains that it is still growing faster," she said.

"Obviously the narrative is that it is not growing as much as it used to grow earlier, it is not (growing at) eight (percent), it is not (growing at) seven (percent), yes all this are very important, but I don't want to underestimate the potential that India is showing even in this adverse circumstance," the minister added.

The IMF on Tuesday slashed India's economic growth projection for 2019 to 6.1 per cent but said that it might pick up to 7 per cent in 2020.

In July this year, the multilateral agency had put India's growth rate at 7 per cent for the current fiscal owing to "weaker-than-expected outlook" of domestic demand. In April, it had said that India will grow at 7.3 per cent in 2019.