India will catch up with China's growth rate in 2016-17: World Bank

China's growth will remain high, but will begin to taper very gently, reaching 6.9% in 2017, it further said

Buoyed by the economic reform measures taken by the Indian government after coming to power in May last year, the World Bank has said that India would catch up with China's growth in the year 2016-17.

"According to our analysis, India will catch up with China's growth in the year 2016 and 2017," World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President Kaushik Basu told reporters.

He was speaking yesterday at a conference call as the bank released the latest issue 'Global Outlook: Disappointments, Divergences, and Expectations Global Economic Prospects,' report.

"China's growth will remain high, but will begin to taper very gently, reaching 6.9% in 2017," Basu said.

The World Bank in its report also forecast a growth rate of seven% each in the fiscal year 2016 and 2017 as against China's 7% and 6. 9% respectively.

This would be for the first time in recent past that India's growth rate would catch up with that of the Asian giant China.

The World Bank estimated a growth rate of 5.6% in 2014 and has forecast a growth rate of 6.4% in 2015, while that of China as 7.4 (estimated) in 2014 and 7.1% (forecast) in 2015.

In its report the Bank said growth in South Asia rose to an estimated 5.5% in 2014 from a 10-year low of 4.9% in 2013.

"The upturn was driven by India, the region's largest economy, which emerged from two years of modest growth," it said.

Regional growth is projected to rise to 6.8% by 2017, as reforms ease supply constraints in India, political tensions subside in Pakistan, remittances remain robust in Bangladesh and Nepal, and demand for the region's exports firms, it said.

"Past adjustments have reduced vulnerability to financial market volatility. Risks are mainly domestic and of a political nature. Sustaining the pace of reform and maintaining political stability are key to maintaining the recent growth momentum," the report said.