Our Bureau
New Delhi
India’s sustained economic growth following the Covid-19 pandemic deserves recognition, with the country recording five consecutive years of growth exceeding 7 per cent, economist Kyunghoon Kim has said. Kim, head of the India and South Asia team at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), noted that the performance reflects the economy’s resilience and places it among the strongest growth periods in its recent history.
In a post on social media platform X on October 16, Kim said major institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank, had raised their growth forecasts for India to above 7 per cent for both 2026 and 2027. The projections highlight the strength of the country’s recovery and continued economic expansion.
India’s economy contracted by 5.8 per cent during the pandemic before rebounding with 9.7 per cent growth in 2021. It subsequently recorded growth of more than 7 per cent in each of the next four years, according to Kim.
The economist said the five-year growth streak matched the country’s performance between 2003 and 2007, when India attracted international attention as one of the BRIC economies. The average annual growth rate between 2021 and 2025 stood at 7.83 per cent, the second-highest five-year average in data dating back to 1960, marginally below the 7.89 per cent recorded during 2003-2007.
Kim also highlighted the changing scale of the Indian economy. While the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at just over $1 trillion in 2007, it has now reached nearly $4 trillion, making the impact of sustained growth considerably larger.
He added that India could become the world’s third-largest economy around 2030 if current projections hold. However, he acknowledged that structural challenges remain, even as the country’s economic performance warrants recognition.