India likely to be Asia's 2nd largest economy by 2030: IHS Markit

Currently, India is the sixth-largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

"This rapid pace of economic expansion would result in the size of Indian GDP exceeding Japanese GDP by 2030, making India the second-largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region," IHS Markit Ltd said.

By 2030, the Indian economy would also be larger in size than the largest Western European economies of Germany, France and the UK.

"Overall, India is expected to continue to be one of the world's fastest-growing economies over the next decade," it said.

The long-term outlook for the Indian economy is supported by a number of key growth drivers.

"An important positive factor for India is its large and fast-growing middle class, which is helping to drive consumer spending," IHS Markit said, forecasting that the country's consumption expenditure will double from $1.5 trillion in 2020 to $3 trillion by 2030.

For fiscal 2021-22 ending March 2022, India's real GDP growth rate is projected to be 8.2 per cent, rebounding from the severe contraction of 7.3 per cent year-on-year in 2020-21, IHS Markit was quoted as saying by a news agency.

The Indian economy is forecast to continue growing strongly in fiscal 2022-23 at a pace of 6.7 per cent.

The rapidly growing domestic consumer market as well as its large industrial sector have made India an increasingly important investment destination for a wide range of multinationals in many sectors, including manufacturing, infrastructure and services.

The digital transformation of India that is currently underway is expected to accelerate the growth of e-commerce, changing the retail consumer market landscape over the next decade.

"This is attracting leading global multinationals in technology and e-commerce to the Indian market," according to the report. "By 2030, 1.1 billion Indians will have internet access, more than doubling from the estimated 500 million internet users in 2020."

The rapid growth of e-commerce and the shift to 4G and 5G smartphone technology will boost home-grown unicorns like online e-commerce platform Mensa Brands, logistics start-up Delhivery and the fast-growing online grocer BigBasket, whose e-sales have surged during the pandemic, IHS Markit said.

"The large increase in FDI inflows to India that has been evident over the past five years is also continuing with strong momentum in 2020 and 2021," it added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)