World Should Learn From India’s Digital Payment Systems: IMF

 The IMF has praised India’s digital payment systems including UPI, CBDC, IMPS as well as its highest growth rate among all the major economies in the world.

The IMF praised India’s progress on digital payment systems including the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI), saying other countries can learn from it. 

Kristalina Georgieva, the MD of the IMF, issued a warning, noting that “every new financial technology generally comes with risks.” 

The majority of IMF member nations are currently actively assessing CBDCs that potentially offer significant benefits, she continued.

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, India will alone account for 15% of the global growth in 2023, maintaining its status as a relative “bright spot” in the global economy.

The fifth-largest economy in the world, which was saved from pandemic lows by digitization, will now be able to maintain its economic momentum thanks to cautious fiscal policy and sufficient finance for capital investments allocated in the budget for the following year.

“The performance by India has been very amazing. For the year that ends in March, we anticipate India to maintain a strong growth rate of 6.8%. 

We forecast 6.1% for FY 2023/24 (April 2023 to March 2024), which is significantly higher than the worldwide average but a little slower than the rest of the world’s economies. 

In this sense, India would contribute 15% or so to global growth in 2023” in an interview with PTI, Ms. Georgieva stated.

The growth rate is the highest one seen among major economies.

At a time when the IMF predicts that 2023 will be challenging due to a slowdown in global growth from 3.4% last year to 2.9% in 2023, she noted that India continues to be a shining example.

“Why is India a great example? Because India has done a great job of using the already-progressing digitalization as a significant engine for mitigating the effects of the pandemic and fostering chances for growth and employment,” mentioning, the managing director.

As compared to markets like those in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia, the Indian real-time payments sector is highly developed, according to a report by ACI Worldwide.

India’s real-time payment methods including the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which both have gained worldwide popularity in recent years, according to the report titled “Perfect Time For Real Time 2022.”

“India accounted for the most real-time transactions in 2021,” ” (48.6 billion). This amount was nearly seven times greater than that of the world’s major economies—the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany—and was roughly three times greater than that of the closest rival, China (18 billion transactions in 2021) “based on a report by Outlook.