ADB chief economist somewhat optimistic of Indian growth drivers

India continues to have growth drivers that will help it achieve a good rate of growth notwithstanding the crisis in West Asia and the impact of the US tariffs, said Albert Park, Chief Economist, Asian Development Bank.
 
“We are somewhat optimistic that the Indian economy has enough drivers of growth that this will not prevent India from achieving a good rate of growth this year,” Park told BT in an interview on Wednesday, while noting that there are risks and there continues to be uncertainty on how the “shock from El Nino will play out”.
 
The ADB had revised down its growth forecast for India to 6.6% this fiscal from its earlier projection of 6.9%. In FY28, it expects the Indian economy to grow by 7.3%. In the Asian Development Outlook update for July 2026, the ADB had also lowered its growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific economies to 4.9% for 2026 compared to 5.5% growth in 2025.

Albert, who is in New Delhi for the AVPN Global Conference 2026, said the focus has been on understanding the impact of the West Asia crisis on the Asian region. While the US tariffs were a big issue last year, they are a little less prominent now following the US Supreme Court striking them down. “There are efforts now to bring back some of them by the U.S. administration. So there's certainly some uncertainty about that,” he said.
 
On the impact of El Nino, he noted that it is likely to be severe this year and will be one of the larger shocks to climate and agriculture, and that will also affect India.
 
Dhun Davar, Deputy CEO and Chief of Programmes, AVPN noted that the availability of capital for addressing challenges such as problems related to urbanisation, climate and conflict led shocks is also crucial.

“There's no lack of capital to actually solve some of these the challenges but what is missing is that coordination architecture, and also a common architecture that brings together the policymakers, the capital providers, whether private, commercial or private philanthropic, and the innovation innovators and project developers,” she said. Apart from physical infrastructure, the human infrastructure is also critical for an economy and issues like nutrition for building the future workforce of economies in Asia is critical, she said.
 
Asia is confronting a $26-trillion financing need through 2030 to maintain growth, eradicate poverty and respond to climate change, alongside a $1.5-trillion annual SDG financing gap that demands more coordinated capital. To this end, the theme of the AVPN Conference is A Blueprint for Action in Asia.