MUMBAI, (DNA) – India is to remain one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, in welcome news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of elections due next year.

In a wide-ranging report on Asia’s third-biggest economy, the IMF forecast GDP growth for the fiscal year 2018-2019 at 7.3 percent before rising to 7.5 percent the following year.

The IMF said India was facing a “broadly positive outlook” thanks to “strengthening investment and robust private consumption.”

India’s growth expanded to 7.7 percent for the quarter from January to March, the highest for seven quarters according to Bloomberg News, as it started to recover from a rocky start to several of Modi’s economic initiatives.

Despite teething problems, the IMF commended Modi’s government for introducing a nationwide goods and services tax in 2017 which aims to create a single market in India.
It also praised the government for relaxing rules on foreign direct investment but added that more needed to be done.
The IMF directors stressed that “India would benefit from further liberalization of trade and foreign investment, and welcomed the authorities’ commitment to a multilateral rules-based trade system.”