India’s growing stature in the global economy

New Delhi: The GDP forecast upgrade by Moody’s and India’s inclusion in the Bloomberg bond index have added to India’s growing importance in the global economy. Earlier this week, global ratings agency Moody's raised India's GDP growth projection for CY24 to 6.8 per cent, as against the 6.1 per cent projected earlier.

Bloomberg on Tuesday announced the inclusion of India FAR bonds in the Bloomberg Emerging Market (EM) Local Currency Government Index. “This is an important marker in the development of India’s financial markets and a reflection of India’s growing importance in the global economy,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg LP.

“India’s continued emergence as a global financial centre promises to be one of the most significant economic developments of this decade, and Bloomberg is committed to bolstering it by connecting more investors to India,” he added.

V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said Bloomberg’s decision to include Indian bonds in the Bloomberg Emerging Market Index, coming after the decision of JP Morgan to include India in the JP Morgan’s Emerging Market Bond Index, is a vote of confidence for the Indian economy.

The inclusion of India in the Bloomberg Bond Index is expected to attract investments exceeding $5 billion. Global financial houses have been increasingly talking about India’s strong growth. “India is in multiple sweet spots. From geostrategic to demographics, there are plenty of well-discussed motivating factors for global investors to look at India favourably," Taimur Baig, MD and Chief Economist, DBS Group Research, and Nathan Chow, Senior Economist, DBS Group Research, said in a note.

Also, Domestic infrastructure, both physical and electronic, has improved considerably, social welfare has expanded, consumer confidence has risen, and asset markets are buoyant. External balances, long susceptible to volatile investment flows and global energy shocks, are beginning to turn for the better as the services surplus offsets most of the trade deficit, the note said.

The Indian economy witnessed a robust growth of 8.4 per cent in Q3FY24 as against 4.3 per cent in Q3FY23, led by strong industrial performance backed by the government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign and impetus on infrastructure building, brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher said.

“The government estimates India to grow by 7.6 per cent in FY24, as compared to 7 per cent growth in the previous year. We believe the Indian economy will continue to be the fastest-growing economy globally, led by pro-growth policies, recovering domestic demand conditions, government spending, and improving capacity utilisation of private firms," it said.