Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal today predicted that India would become the third largest economy in the next five years. Goyal also said that if India continue to grow like this, it will become the a $40 trillion economy by 2047 – the centenary year of India’s Independence.

Speaking at the Asia Economic Dialogue here, Goyal said India is not only the fastest growing economy, but will continue to remain so for many decades to come.

“India is clearly considered as the country of the decade, if not the country of the 21st century, in view of our strong macroeconomic fundamentals and the reforms of the past few years,” he said.

“We have already moved from the 10th largest to the 5th largest economy, and have a young demographic dividend that is being recognised as our biggest asset,” he added.

On trade, Goyal said that in 2019, India decided against joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement as it could have spelt the death-knell of the manufacturing sector in this country.

He said that the previous government’s move to join RCEP was ill-conceived and it hurt India’s interest ..

“The trade deficit with China which was under $2 billion around 15 – 16 years ago, increased to around 48 billion dollars by 2014. We allowed products to come from China while they stopped our products from India to go to China through legitimate or illegitimate reasons,” Goyal explained.

(Source: IANS)