IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva Lauded India For Taking Decisive Measures During Pandemic

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Kristalina Georgieva applauded India for taking "very decisive" methods to address coronavirus pandemic and its financial consequences. She urged the nation this year to do more to facilitate an accelerated economic transition.

What did she say?

During a global media roundtable on Thursday, the IMF MD forecast a much less grim outlook for India in the forthcoming World Economic Update owing to the decisions introduced by it.

“When I called on everybody to stay tuned for January 26, that applies very much to India. You would see a picture in our update that is less bad. Why? Because the country actually has taken very decisive action, very decisive steps to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the economic consequences of it,” Georgieva said.

On January 26, the International Monetary Fund is expected to issue its World Economic Report. Talking about India, she said it was a very dramatic lockdown with people crowded too tightly together for a nation of this population scale.

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“Then India moved to more targeted restrictions and lockdowns. What we see is that that transition, combined with policy support, seems to have worked well. Why? Because if you look at mobility indicators, we are almost where we were before COVID in India, meaning that economic activities have been revitalised quite significantly? " she said.

“What the government has done on the monetary policy and the fiscal policy side is commendable. It is actually slightly above the average for emerging markets. Emerging markets on average have provided six per cent of the GDP. In India, this is slightly above that. Good for India is that there is still space to do more?.. If you can do more, please do,” Georgieva said.

On women and entrepreneurship

“I want to just stress it is scary to see how we are losing ground on gender equality over these months so fast. Women are front line workers…They are often in the informal economy, help cannot easily reach them, so they are hit,” she said.

“….once people start losing jobs, who is to lose jobs first? Women are on the front line. Labour market participation in India for women has been low. It is shrinking…I know the government is paying attention, it is moving in that , but there is so much space to tap into the productive potential of women and the entrepreneurial potential of women,” Georgieva added.

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