Structural reforms key to boost India's growth: UN

New Delhi: A UN report on Friday said continued structural reforms are necessary to boost growth in India, which is currently facing an economic slowdown.

The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 (WESP) report has also lowered GDP growth estimate for India while expressing hope that combination of fiscal stimulus and financial sector reforms will help boost consumption.

"After experiencing a sharp economic slowdown from 6.8 per cent in 2018 to 5.7 per cent in 2019, India has committed to an ambitious fiscal expansion to complement the country's already loose monetary policy.

"The combination of fiscal stimulus and financial sector reforms, boosting investment and consumption, is expected to support a recovery in growth to 6.6 per cent, but it will take continued structural reforms to bring India's growth back to its previous levels," it said.

However, the data related to India was revised to 5 per cent for the current fiscal and 5.8-5.9 per cent for the next financial year, Nagesh Kumar, Head, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said.

While presenting the report, he said the GDP forecast in WESP did not take into account the latest growth numbers released by India's National Statistical Office (NSO).

The report, he said was computed in October 2019 and NSO's advanced growth estimates were released in January 2020 suggesting country's growth would slip to 5 per cent during 2019-20 fiscal.