There will be continuity in economic policy: Rajan

Regardless of the party that wins the ongoing general elections, India will continue to follow the extant economic policy, former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said.

“There is a lot of continuity built into Indian policy,” Rajan said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg TV. “Whatever government comes in will take a lot of the good stuff that has been done and continue it.”

Currently, Rajan is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The new government will announce a budget shortly after it comes to power, which will likely focus on “all the good stuff that is happening while trying to see what other changes have to be made,” he said.

Rajan’s comment comes in the wake of jittery financial markets which fear a possible selloff if the Bharatiya Janata Party loses. While saying that the infrastructure spending under the Narendra Modi government was necessary, he said that the next government needs to focus on the quality of its infrastructure and make sure the investment doesn’t just benefit the major industrial houses.

Bloomberg Economics estimates India will spend Rs 44.4 lakh crore ($534 billion) on building new infrastructure between 2024 and 2026, which will help lift economic growth to 9 per cent by 2030.