The World Bank has predicted 8% GDP growth rate for India by 2017.  According to the World Bank, strong expansion in the country and favourable oil prices will definitely accelerate economic growth in South Asia. In India, GDP growth is expected to accelerate to 7.5 per cent in fiscal year 2015-16. It could reach 8 per cent in fiscal year 2017-18, on the back of significant acceleration of investment growth to 12 per cent during fiscal year 2016-2018.

The World Bank report noted that India is attempting to shift from consumption to investment-led growth, at a time when China is undergoing the opposite transition. India’s expected growth acceleration is mainly driven by business-oriented reforms and improved investor sentiment.

The report further adds that India has already taken good steps to decouple international oil prices from fiscal deficits. Now the real challenge will be to stay the course in the event of oil price hikes, something that may well happen in the medium- term. The country’s oil imports during April-February, 2014-15, totalled $130.84 billion, down 12.24 percent from the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Tidbits

1. The World Bank was formed in 1944 and it’s Headquarters is in Washington DC.
2. The Motto of World Bank is Working for a World Free of Poverty. 
3. The World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
4. The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, and a member of the United Nations Development Group.
5. Jim Yong Kim is the current President of the World Bank Group.