Top economist Kyunghoon Kim on Sunday, 18 October 2026, praised India's sustained economic progress over the past decade, calling the country's growth trajectory and medium-term outlook “worth celebrating” for a nation of 1.4 billion people. Kim's remarks, shared on social media platform X, come amid a broader chorus of institutional upgrades to India's growth forecasts.

What Kim Said

“My conclusion remains the same: India faces many challenges, but its economic catch-up, especially over the past decade, and positive medium-term growth outlook are worth celebrating. For a country of 1.4 billion people, this progress matters enormously,” Kim wrote in his post.

The economist acknowledged that India continues to grapple with significant structural challenges, but argued that these should not overshadow the scale of the country's economic transformation in recent years.

Global Institutions Back India's Growth Story

Kim's endorsement follows his earlier observation that nearly all major multilateral lenders — including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank — have recently revised their growth forecasts for India upward to above 7 per cent for both the current year and the next. According to Kim, the consistency of these upgrades reflects a broad-based confidence in India's macroeconomic fundamentals.

Post-Pandemic Rebound and Five Consecutive Years Above 7%

India's economy contracted by 5.8 per cent during the Covid-19 pandemic before rebounding sharply by 9.7 per cent in 2021. The country then sustained growth of more than 7 per cent in each of the following four years — a stretch Kim noted matches the strong run recorded between 2003 and 2007, when India first emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies.

Kim highlighted that the simple average annual growth rate of 7.83 per cent during 2021–2025 is the second-highest five-year average since 1960, marginally below the 7.89 per cent recorded during the 2003–2007 cycle. Notably, many economists — including Kim himself — repeatedly revised their forecasts upward as quarterly GDP data consistently outperformed expectations.

India's Economy at a Different Scale Today

Kim also drew attention to the changing magnitude of India's economic output. The country's GDP, which stood at just over $1 trillion in 2007, is now approaching the $4 trillion mark. As Kim pointed out, the same percentage growth rate today translates into a far larger absolute expansion in output than it did two decades ago — underscoring the compounding significance of sustained high growth at this scale.

What This Means Going Forward

With India positioned as the world's fifth-largest economy and multiple global institutions projecting continued above-7-per-cent growth, the trajectory reinforces the country's standing as a key engine of global economic expansion. Whether India can sustain this momentum — while addressing unresolved structural challenges in employment, manufacturing depth, and income inequality — will define the next chapter of its economic story.