India needs higher productivity growth, stronger private investment and faster creation of high-quality jobs to achieve the 6.8% medium-term potential growth rate the International Monetary Fund flagged in its October 2026 World Economic Outlook (WEO), the Fund said at a press briefing in Washington on 12 November 2026.
The IMF’s October World Economic Outlook upgraded India’s medium-term potential growth to 6.8% from its earlier estimate of 6.5%, citing favourable demographics, a large and growing domestic market for goods, and continued momentum on structural reforms. Separately, the October WEO raised India’s growth forecast for FY27 and FY28 to 7.0% each, up from the 6.4% and 6.7% projections made in the Fund’s July update.
“But in general, like in many countries, we are encouraging India to take continuing reforms, particularly to focus on how productivity growth can be increased,” Julie Kozack, Communications Director of the IMF, told reporters in response to a question from PTI, adding that “India does remain a key growth engine for the world. The economy has strong fundamentals and has shown considerable resilience.”
Kozack said these issues would come up during the forthcoming Article IV consultations with India, the Fund’s annual bilateral assessment of a member country’s economy. The IMF’s most recent concluded Article IV, published on 26 November 2025, had already underlined that “comprehensive structural reforms are crucial to create high-quality jobs, invigorate investment, and unleash higher potential growth,” and welcomed India’s labour-market reforms while encouraging Delhi to enhance human capital, raise female labour force participation and strengthen the business environment.
India’s fiscal-year growth printed at 7.8% in 2025, according to the IMF’s October 2026 WEO, which placed India’s forecast growth at 7.0% for both 2026 and 2027 on a fiscal-year basis. The Fund projected global growth at 3.1% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027, and expects emerging and developing Asia to expand by 5.1% in 2026, with India standing out as one of the few large economies to receive an upward revision in the latest WEO.
