India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj at the UN General Assembly in October 2015. Swaraj held high-level meetings with CELAC and CARICOM officials at the event (image: United Nations photo)
For the second consecutive year, the booming Indian economy grew faster than any other in 2016, according to a new World Bank report. A strong macroeconomic performer compared to the other so-called BRICS nations, India’s GDP is expected to grow by 7.8% this year, buoyed by investor confidence and the positive effect of low oil prices on real incomes. Notably, it has become an “important source of foreign direct investment”, says the paper entitled Global Economic Prospects 2016. Since the turn of the century, India is increasingly looking overseas, to primary export-oriented countries.
“Given India’s continuing and even growing demand for energy, grain, edible oils and other products that Latin America can offer, there is immense potential,” says Deepak Bhojwani, head of consultancy LatIndia and a former Indian ambassador to seven Latin American countries.
