India can ought to maintain vaccination rate to take care of steady growth: IMF' Gita Gopinath

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath called for greater short-term budget support for households and health sectors. (File photo: PTI) International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath said that to maintain steady growth, India will need to keep increasing the vaccination rate, adding that investments in public infrastructure will stimulate economic recovery, NDTV reported. Her comments came amid a context where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was keeping India's growth projection unchanged at 9.5% for 2021. She also said that inflation and unemployment were key factors pushing the government.

"The manufacturing and service sectors have shown an improvement after crushing the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but the focus area would be the investment in the public infrastructure, as growth will come from there," said the chief economist of the IMF NDTV.

Elaborating on the important aspects can} impact the economy, she said India will got to keep a watch on the coal sector, rising oil costs and inflation. She added, “Secondly, India has got to inject to counter the pandemic. Keep confidence high, inflation is vital as core inflation is high in India and this needs to be looked into.”

Gopinath said there are some indicators that need to be carefully monitored to keep the economy on a growing path. “People still use EI money in rural areas to survive and that is the real indicator of growth. These are uncertain times, the financial sector risk and the risk of infection are still present, so we will have to pay attention to these indicators, "She quoted.