New Delhi :  Gita Gopinath, the first Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said India will become the third-largest economy by 2027-28, based on current projections.

During an interview with India Today Group, the economist said India’s contribution to global GDP is around 15 %. Referring to India as an “engine of global growth”, Gopinath, however, added that there is a lot more work that needs to be done.

“The more important thing is to maintain a high growth momentum for many more years in just the next four or five years. And that will require structural reforms. India is a large country, so in per capita terms, that will still be a small number even if we’re the third largest economy. So India needs to keep pushing on that front to keep the growth momentum going much more,” said the economist.

She added that the expected growth rate of the country for the current fiscal year is over six per cent.

According to the economist, the two factors which are driving the growth are public investment and resilient consumption spending.

Gopinath stressed the need to attract private investment to increase the levels of per capita income and to get to continued high levels of growth. In order to enable an environment for private investment, it is imperative that the investment in public infrastructure continues, she added.

The economist said only four Indian states  Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Delhi  get a large chunk of foreign direct investment.

She noted that a lot has to be done at the level of state governments.

Other areas that need improvement, according to Gita Gopinath, include increasing the ease of conducting business, education and female labour force participation.

Commenting on India’s G20 Presidency, she said it was a “huge deal” that a leaders declaration was adopted unanimously.

“Nobody expected that there would be a leader’s declaration. The fact that there was one is a huge deal. It tells you that even though countries can have different opinions about the way the world is headed, they can actually come together and have a declaration that I think is huge,” she added.

She also applauded the work done during India’s presidency on crypto regulation, debt issues and multilateral development bank financing.