Asian Development Bank has proposed to increase lending to India by almost 50 per cent to $ 12 billion by 2018, bank president Takehiko Nakao said. “ADB aims at increasing its sovereign and non-sovereign lending from the present $ 7 billion to 9 billion in three years from 2015 to 2017 to $ 10-12 billion between 2016 and 2018 using ADB's expanded lending capacity.”
After meeting India's finance minister Arun Jaitley and urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu, Nakao said, “We are now targeting higher numbers. We will increase the numbers by about 50 per cent or little bit less but roughly we will try to increase lending to India by about 50 per cent,” the ADB chief said.
Pointing out India's projected growth rate of 7.8 per cent for the 2015-16 fiscal, higher in comparison to China's estimated 7.2 per cent in 2015, ADB is expected to revise its growth projections for the current fiscal in July, Nakao said. He added, “ADB's latest economic outlook for India published in March projects GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in FY 2015-16, rising to 8.2 per cent in the 2016-17.”
“The strong growth outlook is backed by good macroeconomic indicators such as a decline in inflation and the current account deficit, and reforms to further open up certain sectors for foreign direct investment and reduce fuel subsidies. Efforts to expedite clearances for key infrastructure projects will also sustain growth momentum.”
