IMF expects India's role to expand in Indo-Pacific region

The International Monetary Fund expects India's role in the Indo-Pacific region's development to continue to expand because of its robust growth, but it has to carry out more trade reforms, Ken Kang, the deputy director in IMF's Asia Pacific Department said on Friday.

"Given our robust growth forecast where we see India's growth rising from 7.4 per cent in 2017-18 to 7.8 per cent in 2019, we do expect India's role in the region to continue to expand," he said at a news conference in Washington.

"That being said, India does have room to expand its export orientation and to reduce further trade and non-trade barriers," he added.

"The statutory tariff rate in India is relatively high at about 15 per cent, and higher than those in the rest of the region," he added. "So there is room to do more on trade reform."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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