Speaking to the media today, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the economy was now recovering from the serious challenges it had faced in the last few years.
“The economy is recovering from the serious challenges it has faced in last few years, basic fiscal data looks good. Retail credit has picked up, corporate credit is still to pick up,” Jaitley said at a press conference in New Delhi.
The Finance Minister also met the heads of PSU banks today and discussed the state of banks with respect to the current economic scenario.
“We discussed the state of banks with respect to the state of the economy. Social sector schemes were also discussed. The government will seriously look into bank re-capitalisation over the next few months. We expect the banks to pass on RBI rate cuts in the coming months,” he added.
According to latest World Bank figures, India may officially surpass China in its growth rate as it is now leading major emerging economies in the growth chart.
“With an expected growth of 7.5 per cent this year, India is, for the first time, leading the World Bank’s growth chart of major economies,” said Kaushik Basu, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President after the release of the latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report on Wednesday.
On the other hand, China is projected to grow at 7.1 per cent. Developing countries are now projected to grow by 4.4 per cent this year, with a likely rise to 5.2 per cent in 2016, and 5.4 per cent in 2017, the report stated.