International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh on January 6 called India a relative “bright spot” in the world economy, growing at rates “significantly above” its peer average. The OECD’s Global Economic Outlook in November projected major headwinds that would slowdown global growth at 3.1% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2023.

“Global GDP growth is projected to be 3.1% in 2022, around half the pace seen in 2021 during the rebound from the pandemic, and to slow further to 2.2% in 2023, well below the rate foreseen prior to the war,” said the outlook. It is, however, bullish for India despite the country also facing adverse geopolitical developments such as the Ukraine war. Even as it trimmed India’s growth projection from 6.6% in 2022-23 to 5.7% in 2023-24, it expected the economy to rebound to 6.9% in 2024-25 – far ahead of the global average.

The latest edition of EY Economy Watch sums it up well: “Amid these darkening economic clouds, India is shining as a bright spot, with its growth projected to be higher than that of other major economies.” This is also corroborated by the latest official data. The first advance estimates for 2022-23 released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 7%, which is higher than 6.8% estimated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month.

The other crucial factor in favour of India is inflation. The Narendra Modi government’s agile, nimble and calibrated policy interventions brought inflation under control at a time when most of the world, including major advanced economies, were unable to tame it and, in some places, it was 40-year high. India managed it to 5.88% in November, which is below the upper tolerance limit of 6% in about nine months. The peak was at 7.8% in the month of April 2022, highest monthly inflation since May 2014 or during the Modi government.

But this peak has been lower than the economy faced previously. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman used the historical data to corner the Opposition in the Lok Sabha on December 14, 2022. “It is a bit difficult when Parties which saw double-digit inflation during their period raise a question on inflation. That is not something which I am imagining. I would just like to say that the inflation data in November of 2013 was at 19.93 per cent and in the earlier month, in October, it was 18.19 per cent,” she told the house.

Thanks to the Modi government’s inflation management that didn’t hit India the way it devastated some economies, particularly the US and advanced countries of Europe. India’s carefully measured stimulus packages helped in keeping inflation under control while accelerating the economic growth in contrast to huge demand-side largesse of some advanced economies that escalated prices of essential commodities to multi-year high, Sitharaman said while replying questions on inflation during the Budget discussion in the Rajya Sabha in February last year.

Data does not lie. While the two macroeconomic indicators mentioned above prove the point that India has been able to manage its economic affairs better than most of the countries (including advanced economies), other high frequency data also state the same. Barring “compulsive contrarian” (a term used by former finance minister Arun Jaitley), all, including major multilateral agencies, acknowledge skilful management of the economy by the Modi government.