World Bank President to Visit India, Pakistan in Oct

Washington, Oct 17 (PTI) World Bank President David Malpass said on Thursday that he would travel to India and Pakistan later this month where he will discuss the challenges in the financial sector.

"In India, I hope to discuss the challenges in the financial sector, where progress can be made and help India grow even faster than it is," Malpass said at a news conference at the start of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank here.

In India, he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top leaders.

"India is a good example of a country that's been able to grow fast by improving the system, having more flexibility within the markets of the system, and I think there's more progress that can be made there," he said.

India is growing in a positive number, but not fast enough, he said, adding that policies can improve to help with faster growth.

He refrained from giving any response to a question on the recent growth rate projections by the IMF and World Bank, saying that there's a range of opinions on this.

"You know there's a range of opinions. So I don't so much have an opinion on what the growth rate is. We publish the growth rates within our Global Economic Prospects report," he said.

In Pakistan, he will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and discuss the current economic situation in the country.

"In Pakistan, we are observing substantial structural reforms and changes going on both at the national level, but also at the provincial and the city level in Pakistan. And it has challenges in terms of the agricultural system, in terms of the land system, in terms of the financial system," Malpass said.

"We're working on all of those (issues) and others in Pakistan as well," he added.

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