IMF chief describes India as economic power house

NEW DELHI: IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday described India as a “leading power” and an “economic powerhouse” going by the performance of the economy.

“Your result here in terms of economic growth and also in terms of inclusive growth are really amazing”, he told reporters after a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee .

“ We had a very fruitful discussion and relationship between India and the IMF is expanding”, he said on the meeting with Mukherjee.

“India is becoming one of the leading power in the world. It is really an economic powerhouse”, he said.

“Your result here in terms of economic growth and also in terms of inclusive growth are really amazing.

“The forecast we had in the IMF is exactly what you are following now which is probably the maximum that the Indian economy can provide these days. So you are running as fast as you can,” he said.

IMF has projected Indian economy to grow by 9.7 per cent in 2010 though it uses a different methodology for its calculation.

India, which uses different computation for calculating GDP than IMF, however, expects the economy to grow by 8.5 per cent this fiscal.

The IMF chief said higher economic growth than what is being witnessed by India may lead to risks of inflation and high current account deficit in the country.