In an exclusive interview to NDTV, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said he was concerned by the uncertainty in the world economy.
Britain's exit from the European Union has led to "economic uncertainty which is not good but India seems to be doing quite well," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has told NDTV in his first comments since Brexit.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Dr Kim, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier today in Delhi, said he was concerned by the uncertainty in the world economy. "The uncertainty has led to fluctuations in currency, we see that UK has been downgraded two notches by one of the ratings agencies and this is very serious...to go down two notches at the same time. I am concerned, but unfortunately, right now we don't know which direction it's going to go."
He also cautioned countries on turning "inward", saying multilateralism is critical. "Multilateralism is one of the great hopes for peace and prosperity. If you want to tackle inequality, you cannot have closed borders," he said.
Dr Kim, however, held out hope for India, predicting "slightly higher growth" next year. He said: "India seems to be doing quite well. India has been growing rapidly. Its connections to UK is of course very strong but economically there was a one-day blip in the stock market but then now things have now seemed to calmed down. So it is good news for India."
Asked on GDP numbers, which some economists have questioned, Dr Kim said: "We are as close to these numbers as anyone and this is not an exact science, and there is no physics in this. There are many people who question China's growth numbers. There are many people who question everybody's growth numbers. This is not a mathematical, scientific, exact snapshot. It is taking many indicators and then in a consistent way doing the best we can to make an estimate."
On the exit of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Chief Raghuram Rajan, the World Bank Chief said he did not believe it would impact India's policy. "I think both Raghu and PM Modi and the government have been communicating very effectively about it. He was a great central bank governor, tremendously respected. Respected as an academic before he came to reserve bank and then respected in how clearly he communicated in the things that he did. What I have heard from talking to PM Modi and members of his team is there is not going to be much of a change. They are going to continue to have independent central bank governor, an independent central bank...and the policies that have led to good outcomes so far economically will continue."
The World Bank Chief had huge praise for the prime minister as he said: "PM Modi has set some incredibly difficult targets for his team and what I have seen is that along with us there is just an all-out effort to reach those targets. A couple of examples, the cleaning up of the Ganga, this is a huge project and they are moving much faster than I thought they ever would be able to. Swachh Bharat is one of the most important programs for India, not just for sanitation but for the health of young children for example, that's moving much more quickly than we had ever thought."