INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.New Delhi: IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath, in an
exclusive interview to TheIndianSubcontinent, says global economic recovery has been endangered by renewed restrictions in many countries --
including India -- over the rise of the Omicron variant
The IMF Chief Economist -- who met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday -- underlined three things she would tell the Centre on
how to get back on track in the face of another potential Covid threat."First, to make sure you are doing your vaccinations on a war footing
37 per cent of India's total population is fully-vaccinated -- in terms of the first dosage, it's much higher at around 60 per cent
What we see is around the world is that when vaccine cases come down, pressure comes off, people don't think about getting vaccinated
So getting over vaccine hesitancy through a much higher rate of vaccination is essential," Ms Gopinath said."It's not going to solve the
You're still going to get the infection, we've seen that in the U.K., even with higher rates of vaccination
But, everything points to the fact that even with Omicron, if you are vaccinated, you get some protection against severe disease and that's
what we should be targeting," she added."The second area is recovery
There has been recovery after Delta (variant)
There's been a rebound after opening but it's not done, it's not complete
There's a big gap between where India would have been in the absence of pandemic and where it is
So, there's still a need to keep the near term fiscal monetary policy accommodative," she told TheIndianSubcontinent."But, at the same
time, you also communicate how you are going to consolidate with the medium term
How would you bring the house in order over the medium term? Similarly, for monetary policy side, keeping a very close eye on inflation," Ms
Gopinath, set to become the IMF's Deputy Managing Director, mentioned."And the last thing, make sure that there's sufficient spending on
India has done well in terms of investments in physical and digital infrastructure but there's much more that's needed," she said.She
targets.Further, the IMF Chief Economist lauded the Centre for Air India privatisation and termed it a "very good step."
