India is expected to raise the issue of increasing protectionism by some countries and its impact on the global economic situation at the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“The increasing tendency to look inwards by countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom that has led to Brexit will make the global economy even more volatile. Most countries are closely monitoring the developments in these two countries,” said an official, noting that global recovery is still very fragile.
This would be especially true for emerging economies such as India that depends on exports and foreign capital, he added.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Reserve Bank of India Governor Urijit Patel as well as senior Finance Ministry officials including Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian will be attending the meetings that will be held in Washington DC between April 21 and 23.
Jaitley in the Union Budget had also underlined “increasing retreat from globalisation of goods, services and people, as pressures for protectionism are building up” as a risk to India’s growth prospects for 2017-18 as it could impact exports.
DemonetisationMeanwhile, the Finance Ministry is understood to have also prepared background papers on India’s experience with demonetisation of currency, in case any discussion on the exercise comes up.
“Demonetisation has been done and dusted. The economy, even according to international analysts has also not been impacted by it. But in case there is any discussion at the international forum, we are preparing some reports on it,” said another official.
According to a Finance Ministry statement, Jaitley and his team of officials will leave for US on Wednesday for a five-day visit. During his stay in Washington DC, he will not only attend the IMF and World Bank meetings but also the G-20 Meeting on Financial Sector Development and Regulations and other issues.
On April 22, the Finance Minister will hold a meeting with his US counterpart and US Secretary of Treasury.
He will also have a meeting with the President of World Bank.
He will leave for New York on April 23 where he will meet institutional investors and long-term investors on April 24 and then leave for Moscow.