Europe looks to leverage India’s post-election economy

MANY political controversies have surrounded Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both before and after he assumed India’s top political job. Yet, his economic record in office is much more impervious to criticism.

Since Modi assumed power in 2014, India’s gross domestic product has grown at an average of around 5.5 per cent in compound annual growth rate terms to become a US$3.5 trillion economy. On this trajectory, there are even some forecasts that New Delhi could overtake Beijing as the world’s key growth engine before the end of the 2020s.

This has helped fuel an equity boom that has put India’s stock market – the world’s fifth-biggest – at around a US$5 trillion valuation for the first time. Modi predicts this market boom will intensify after the 2024 Indian general election results are released in June, should his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win power again, because of the impact of his government’s policies on investor confidence.