India's Growth Prospects Strong: RBI Governor - Davos 2023

Davos, Jan 16 (PTI) India's growth prospects are very good, and the country's banking sector has seen a remarkable recovery, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a session here, Das said there is a lot of international confidence in India and the macroeconomic and financial sector stability that the country offers.

"... I think we need to really look back at the business opportunity in India. Because this is the right time to build into the Indian ecosystem," he said and emphasised that the country's growth prospects are very good on account of the structural reforms that have taken place in recent years.

Despite various shocks and crises, he said the Indian banking sector has seen a remarkable recovery.

"The Indian banking sector is perhaps at one of its best in recent years... the financial sector is very stable... the external sector is also stable notwithstanding that the global growth is slowing down...India's services sector is growing," he said.

While pointing out that these factors are not one-off developments, Das cited the example of the regulatory architecture of the government and private sector banks and NBFCs (non-banking financial companies).

"They are providing the foundations for the belief in the Indian growth momentum...," he said.

Earlier this month, the National Statistical Office (NSO) projected the Indian economy to grow at 7.3 per cent in 2023-24 against 7.2 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Das said that global growth is slowing down and added that geoeconomic fragmentation and supply chain issues are still persisting.

"We have substantially improved our supervision... our forward-looking approach is to identify a crisis, a possible risk before it actually materialises and takes pre-emptive measures to prevent any risk build-up," he said.

To a query about cryptocurrency, the RBI chief said it has huge risks.

"Cryptocurrency as a product is highly speculative. My opinion and the RBI's opinion is that considering the big risks around it, countries like India should be very very careful...," he said.

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) started on Monday here.