India, which is projected to grow at an impressive rate of 12.5 per cent this year, needs to grow at a much faster pace to make up for the unprecedented contraction of 8 per cent clocked during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, according to a senior IMF official.

The International Monetary Fund’s deputy chief economist Petya Koeva Brooks also made a strong case for an additional economic stimulus to address the impact of the pandemic on the country’s economy.

“When it comes to India there was a major collapse of output last fiscal. So, we are very glad to see the strong rebound this year with a projected growth of 12.5 for 2021-22. We are also seeing high frequency indicators, including PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index), and trade and more mobility indicators which give us a sense that there is continued recovery in the first quarter of this year,” she said.

“On the recovery itself, we are expecting the level of output to return to the pre-crisis one. That is what we have in our projections,’’ she said. However, the recent localised lockdowns are seen as one of the threats to this recovery, she noted.