Given population growth, India needs to create 148 million additional jobs by 2030, says IMF Director Gopinath

India is a laggard among the G20 countries in terms of job creation. Given the Population growth, IMFFirst Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Gita Gopinath he said today.

India grew by an average of 6.6% in the decade from 2010, but the Employment rate is below 2%, she said at the Diamond Jubilee event of the Delhi School of Economics.

Compared to other G20 countries, India’s employment rate is much lower, she said.

“If you look at India’s population growth projections, India will need to create between 60 million and 148 million additional jobs between now and 2030. We are already in 2024, so we need to create a lot of jobs in a short period of time,” she said.

Given the scale of what is needed, fundamental reforms will be required, including land reforms and the implementation of labour laws. To create more jobs, she said, increasing private investmentsbecause it does not correspond to GDP growth of 7%.

However, she said: public investments is going well, but private investment needs to be increased. She also said that India should overhaul its education system to improve the skills of its workforce.

She also added that there is a need to further improve the ease of doing business, improve the regulatory environment and expand the tax base. Gopinath praised the dynamism of the Indian economy and the strength of the country’s relations with the IMF.

Finance Minister Sitharaman said India highly values ​​its relationship with the IMF and the government is open to further opportunities to enhance cooperation. The IMF, in its outlook released last month, raised India’s growth forecast for 2024 to 7% from the previous estimate of 6.8%.

The IMF forecast a growth rate of 6.5% for India by 2025. It based its growth forecasts on the robustness and strength of domestic demand and a growing working-age population.

According to official data from the Indian government, the country’s GDP grew by an impressive 8.2% in the financial year 2023-24 and it continued to remain the fastest growing major economy. India’s economy grew by 7.2% in 2022-23 and 8.7% in 2021-22.

The Reserve Bank of Indiaraised its GDP forecast for the current year 2024-25 from 7% to 7.2% in its latest monetary policy meeting. The World Bank also revised India’s GDP growth for the current financial year 2024-25 by 20 basis points to 6.6%, compared to the first forecast in January of 6.4%.

It added that India will continue to be the fastest growing among the world’s largest economies, although its pace of expansion is expected to slow.