Mexico Bank Gov praises Indian economy

Mumbai, Nov 12: Bank of Mexico Governor Dr Guillermo Ortiz is highly appreciative of the Indian economy which has been able to maintain a steady growth rate of 8 per cent for three years in a row.

Delivering Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas Memorial Lecture here, Dr Ortiz said, ''India has been experiencing, for more than two decades, extraordinarily high growth rate. The fact that Indian economy is expected to grow more than 8 per cent, reflects that the country is, without doubt, one of the most dynamic economies in the global scene, he said.

He was speaking on the topic 'Growth and stability in Latin America and Asia' which was organised by Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) here on Saturday.

Talking about the export growth of the country, he said that it has averaged more than 22 per cent a year since 2001 and its share of world exports has nearly doubled in the past 15 years.

Referring to the projections made by a Goldman Sachs study, he said that the so-called BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) together with Mexico and Korea have the potential to become important on a global scale and by the year 2050, China, India, Brazil and Mexico will be the first, third, fourth and sixth largest economies in US Dollar terms, respectively, he said.

However, adding a cautionery note, the Governor said, ''These projections must be considered with some reserve, since they assume that various elements of policy are put in place in order to promote rapid growth and to converge to developed country income levels.'' Lauding India's development in the information technology (IT) industry he said, ''India has been able to exploit its comparative advantage on technically adept English-speaking talent in an era of broadband communications and globalisation.'' In this case, the combination of adequate public policies and private investments have allowed 'business process outsourcing' in India to generate revenues of nearly five per cent of GDP and gain a dominant position in an industry that still has significantly untapped potential,'' he added.

Reacting over Dr Ortiz's view, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr Y V Reddy said, ''There has to be a conjunction of various policies and I welcome the critic's remark of adopting a conservative appraoch, but what is the harm if it has helped achieve the growth rate of 8 per cent,'' Also he advised the IIBF to work for financial education.

UNI