India to overtake China in GDP growth in 2010: World Bank

The World Bank has projected 5.1 per cent growth for India in 2009, revising its earlier projection of 4 per cent.

In its Global Development Finance Report 2009 released yesterday, the bank has also projected an 8 per cent growth for India in 2010, overtaking China's expected growth of 7.7 per cent.

However, the developing countries are expected to grow by only 1.2 per cent this year, after 8.1 per cent growth in 2007 and 5.9 per cent growth in 2008.

The Indian economy had grown by 6.7 per cent in 2008 against the World Bank's estimate of 6.1 per cent.

"When China and India are excluded, GDP in the remaining developing countries is projected to fall by 1.6 per cent, causing continued job losses and throwing more people into poverty," the report said. (See: World entering slow-growth era: World Bank)

The bank has urged rich countries to boost the flow of credit to developing nations to help speed up economic recovery. ''Developing countries can become a key driving force in the recovery, assuming their domestic investments rebound with international support, including a resumption in the flow of international credit,'' said Justin Lin, World Bank chief economist and senior vice president, Development Economics.