India's GDP growth forecast cut to 5.9% by IMF as global headwinds jostle economy

India has been resisting the pressure from global headwinds, as its central bank also left interest rates unchanged to prioritise growth. But the country's GDP growth for the October-December quarter in FY23 slowed down to 4.4 per cent, while the finance ministry set expectations for 7 per cent growth for the fiscal year.

Now the International Monetary Fund, which has called India a bright spot amid global gloom, has cut its GDP growth forecast from 6.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

India better off but faces headwinds

India is still better off than the world, as IMF's global growth outlook has been cut down from 2.9 per cent to 2.8 per cent.

It had already been lowered to that level from 3.4 per cent which IMF had predicted a year back.

Key voices such as HDFC CEO Deepak Parekh and his counterpart at Axis Bank, have also warned of India's GDP growth slowing down due to global recession.

RBI still optimistic

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank also cut the growth forecast for India last week, but they were higher than IMF at 6.3 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively.

But the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee went on to raise its forecast from 6.4 per cent to 6.5 per cent last week.