India may record 7% growth in FY26, says Gita Gopinath

THE INDIAN ECONOMY is expected to grow by 7% in the current fiscal, slightly higher than 6.6% projected by the IMF in October, said Gita Gopinath, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Speaking at Times Network's India Economic Conclave 2025, Gopinath said that the IMF made its projection for India's growth before the National Statistical Office (NSO) came out with its July-September quarter growth rate of 8.2%.

"I would say that the IMF number (India's growth projection) was 6.6% that came out in October. But their forecast for the second quarter of the current fiscal, in terms of what the growth would be, was much lower than what it turned out to be at over 8%," she said.

"Just doing math, I would expect that India's GDP growth would go up close to 7%," adds Gopinath. Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the GDP growth projection to 7.3% for the current fiscal from its earlier estimate of 6.8%, following robust economic performance in the July-September quarter.

The GDP registered a six-quarter high growth of 8.2% in Q2 of 2025-26, underpinned by resilient domestic demand amidst global trade and policy uncertainties. The IMF, in October, revised upwards India's GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 6.6% compared to its earlier estimate of 6.4% on the back of strong growth, offsetting the impact of US tariffs on Indian shipments.