Growth to stay high but inequality a concern: Economists

While the Indian economy is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing major one in the foreseeable future, equality remains a major concern. This is what most independent economists and policy experts polled by Reuters think.

About 85 per cent of development economists and policy experts, 43 out of 51, told the news agency that they were not confident economic inequality would significantly reduce over the next five years. Six experts were confident and two very confident about reduction in inequality.

“These are separate from private economists who regularly forecast economic data and interest rates,” Reuters said.

“Acknowledging that it is a problem will be a good first step... Currently, reduction of economic inequality is not a policy objective of decision-makers,” said Reetika Khera, a development economist at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. “Inequality is not something that will go away on its own... it needs proactive government interventions.”

Nagpurnanand Prabhala, finance professor at Johns Hopkins University, didn’t agree with this view: “I don’t think the inequality metrics are meaningful for India. The key issue is not inequality but how the bottom of the pyramid fares economically. This is not a function of how the top does.”