Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Important for India to focus on green investment post-pandemic: IMF

October 19, 2021

Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director of the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, urged that special emphasis should be paid to green investment in order to ensure that recovery is both inclusive and environmentally

While the country has been reporting fewer instances over the past two months and the downward trend has continued, India is showing indications of recovery. The IMF issued a statement on where India should concentrate its efforts in order to get its economy back on track. According to PTI, the IMF stated on Wednesday that while India’s economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical for the government to prioritise public investment, particularly in green industries.

Deputy Director Paolo Mauro of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department told reporters during a news conference here that as we progress towards recovery, it’s also vital to focus on public investment, particularly green investment, so that the recovery may be inclusive and green. He stated that India’s debt ratio is about 90%, and that it is critical to provide a signal to investors that there is a medium-term fiscal framework in place that assures them that the debt ratio will drop in the medium run.

In response to a query, Mauro stated that the situation with the epidemic is improving. He described the situation as “quite different” from a few months ago, adding that the number of cases is falling and vaccination is becoming more prevalent. On the economic front, even though things are looking up, the priority is still to deal with the health crisis. According to Mauro, the government must continue to provide substantial assistance, particularly to the poorer elements of the population, through social protection, job benefits, and other means. In terms of more recent reforms, he added that the National Asset Reconstruction Company, or “bad bank,” is potentially extremely promising because it is critical to address non-performing loans.