For India, it maintained the growth forecasts at 7.4 per cent for 2017-18 and 7.6 per cent for fiscal 2018-19.
The investment made by the Asian Development Bank will be accompanied by a loan of up to $20 million from the Canadian Climate Fund under the ADB’s Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility, which will aim to contribute to the diversification of the energy mix within the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries.
ADB said combined growth for the major industrial economies is forecast to remain at 1.9% in 2017 and 2018. However, the bill is still pending at the committee level at the Senate of the Philippines.
This will finance 4,762 projects composed of 4,343 projects with a cost of less than P1 billion; 233 projects that cost P2.5 billion and above; and 186 projects costing P1 billion to below P2.5 billion.
There was a slowdown in last fiscal due to demonetisation and factors like sluggish private sector investment and weak bank lending contributed to the slowdown, ADB said.
Likewise, the projection for 2018 was lifted slightly to 5.8% from 5.7%.
In a supplement to the Asian Development Outlook 2017 report, ADB also upgraded its growth outlook for Developing Asia from 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent in 2017 and from 5.7 per cent to 5.8 per cent for 2018.
India, the sub-region’s largest economy, was expected to achieve previous growth projections 7.4 per cent in 2017 and 7.6 per cent in 2018, primarily from strong consumption, the report added.
Despite lingering uncertainties surrounding the strength of the global recovery, he said: “We feel that the region’s economies are well-placed to face potential shocks to the outlook”.
Halfway into the year, the Asian Development Bank has raised the estimated GDP growth rate for developing countries in Asia this year and next by a few tenths of a percentage point.
Their economic growth outpaced that of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The outlook for Central Asia this year has also improved as stronger domestic demand and exports in some countries have fueled an unexpected recovery in the subregion.
Consumer price inflation in the Asia region “is projected to be lower than the previous estimate on the back of steady global oil and food prices due to sufficient supplies and favourable weather conditions despite increasing demand”, the report said.