India’s with a projected growth rate of 9.5 per cent in 2021 has retained the tag of being the fastest growing economy in the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest World Economic Outlook report projected India to grow at 9.5 per cent in 2021 and 8.5 per cent in 2022.

According to IMF projections, China is expected to grow at 8 per cent in 2021 and 5.6 per cent in 2022.

"We don't have a change to our growth forecast for this year for India. I mean India came out of a very, very tough second wave and that led to a big downgrade in July but we have no change (in its growth rate projections) as of now," IMF’s chief economist Gita Gopinath said, while addressing a virtual press conference.

Also read: Moody’s upgrades India’s credit rating to stable

Gopinath said that India has done well on the vaccination front.

"The Indians are doing well in terms of vaccination rates and that's certainly helpful," Ms Gopinath said when asked.

The IMF’s projections for India have remained unchanged from the July readings. However, it is a three-percentage point in 2021 and 1.6 percentage point drop from its April projections.

As per IMF’s latest projections, the world is expected to grow at 5.9 per cent in 2021. In 2022, the growth rate is expected to be 4.9 per cent.

"The outlook for the low-income developing country group has darkened considerably due to worsening pandemic dynamics. The downgrade also reflects more difficult near-term prospects for the advanced economy group, in part due to supply disruptions,” Gopinath said.