Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that emerging economies have become increasingly important, accounting for more than 75 per cent of global growth, and that India has been a major driver of global economic growth.Jaitley said India's growth is expected to be 7.5 percent for 2017-18 as against 7.1 percent in 2016-17."India's growth remains resilient, with low inflation, fiscal prudence and low current account deficit," the Minister said, addressing a gathering at the G-20 Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors' Meeting in Washington D.C. on Friday.The discussion sessions focused on the Compact with Africa, Financial Sector Development and Regulations, International Financial Architecture and Global Financial Governance.Jaitley said that India is on course to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 2017. "GST will eliminate the multiplicity of taxes and make India a single common market and as per IMF (International Monetary Fund) projections, India's medium term growth is poised to raise above 8 per cent."
He also said the government is mulling many more multi-faceted reforms, which are expected to ensure that India can withstand the volatility of the global economy as well as ensure an upward growth trajectory.Jaitley said the rich nations still have a big responsibility and obligation to use their resources to support multilateralism, to make institutions like the World Bank strong to be able to fund policies and programmes for the growth and development of poorer nations.He was addressing the gathering at the Development Committee Restricted Lunch Session here.Jaitley also held separate bilateral meetings with the Finance Ministers of Indonesia and Australia here and discussed areas of mutual collaboration and commonality of their positions in various multilateral fora.He is currently on a tour to Washington to attend the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank and other associated meetings. Jaitley is accompanied by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and other officials.