We hosted a panel discussion on Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in South Asia on Monday, November 4th from 4:00 pm- 5:30 pm at Brookings India. Based on presentations by Dr. Manuela Goretti, Deputy Division Chief, Asia and Pacific Department (IMF) & Dr. Giovanni Melina, Economist, Research Department (IMF), the discussion will look at the role of structural reforms and a balanced growth strategy can play in ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth in South Asia, with a focus on India.

Abstracts:

1. Is South Asia ready for take-off? A sustainable and inclusive growth agenda:  South Asia is poised to play a key role in the global economy, in both relative and absolute terms, building on the steady economic progress and reform process over the last few decades. India is among the fastest-growing large economies, and South Asia’s contribution to global growth is set to increase, while more mature economies decelerate. With a population that has a median age under 27, South Asia is also the youngest region in Asia. This young and large workforce can be South Asia’s strength, if supported by a successful high-quality and job-rich growth strategy, leveraging all sectors of the economy in a balanced way. Although policy recommendations remain country-specific, for many South Asian economies these should include: further progress in revenue mobilisation and fiscal consolidation; greater trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) liberalisation; and investment in people.

Presenter’s Bio: Dr. Manuela Goretti is Deputy Division Chief in the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund. Since February 2018, she is the IMF mission chief for Sri Lanka. Before assuming this position, she was Advisor to the First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. Prior to joining the Fund, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Warwick University, UK.

2. Reigniting growth in emerging market and low-income economies: What role for structural reforms? The pace of structural reforms in emerging markets and developing economies was strong during the 1990s, but it has slowed since the early 2000s. Using a newly constructed database on structural reforms, this paper finds that a reform push in such areas as governance, domestic and external finance, trade, and labour and product markets could deliver sizable output gains in the medium term. A major and comprehensive reform package might double the speed of convergence of the average emerging market and developing economy to the living standards of advanced economies, raising annual GDP growth by about one percentage point for some time.

Presenter’s Bio: Dr. Giovanni Melina is an economist in the Research Department of the IMF. Before joining the Fund, he worked as an Associate Professor of Macroeconomics at City University London, after obtaining a PhD in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London.

Panelists:

Dr. Mudit Kapoor is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). He holds a PhD in Economics from University of Maryland in College Park, USA and an MA in Economics from Delhi School of Economics. He will chair the panel discussion.

Dr.  Anne-Marie Gulde is the Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Department, IMF. She holds a PhD in international economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Her publications focus on exchange rate regimes, financial stability and development issues.

Mr. A K Bhattacharya is the Editorial Director of Business Standard. He’s formerly edited the Economic Times and the Pioneer. He graduated from Hindu college, University of Delhi.