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Making a strong case for an additional economic stimulus to address the impact of the pandemic on the country's economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Chief Economist, Petya Koeva Brooks has said that India, which is projected to grow at an impressive rate of 12.5 percent this year, needs to grow at a much faster pace to make up for the unprecedented contraction of eight percent that it clocked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Brooks said ‘we are very glad to see the strong rebound this year with projected growth of 12.5 for fiscal year 21-22 and we are seeing also high-frequency indicators including PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index), and trade and more mobility indicators which give us a sense that there is a continued recovery in the first quarter of this year.’ But, she noted that there are some recent emergencies of the new variants in the localized lockdowns that are seen as one of the threats to this recovery.

Brooks further said the IMF very much welcomes the measures that were announced by India during its budget and underlined that it is particularly supportive of maintaining the accommodative fiscal stance and also emphasizing expenditures on health and infrastructure.