NEW DELHI: India’s economic growth clip this year and next will be better than previously assumed, overtaking China in 2015 to become the world’s fastest growing major economy and widening the gap further in 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have said in separate forecasts.Both IMF and World Bank see India’s growth rising to 7.5 per cent in 2015 from 7.2 per cent in the preceding year, but have different assessments for 2016. IMF, which last January forecast 2015 growth at 6.3 per cent and 2016 growth at 6.5 per cent, has penciled in 7.5 per cent growth next year while World Bank has the 2016 figure higher at 7.9 per cent. The bank had last January pegged the growth rates at 6.4 per cent this year and 7 per cent in 2016. The Centre had budgeted 8.1-8.5 per cent GDP growth in the year to end-March 2016.The numbers will be music to the government’s ears, especially because the Indian economy, while being spoken of in the same breath as China in terms of economic potential, has never managed to surpass its giant neighbour’s growth rate. Even with a higher growth rate, India’s $2-trillion GDP will remain much smaller compared with China’s $10-trillion economy.These estimates were released on Tuesday ahead of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings in Washington. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is leading the Indian delegation, which includes RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, to the meetings.The latest numbers, which are a significant upgrade on earlier assessments, take into account the much-debated and questioned new national accounts numbers of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) as also reforms by the Narendra Modi government.IMF has pegged China’s growth at 6.8 per cent in 2015 and 6.3 per cent next year while the world economy is forecast to show no material improvement, growing only 3.5 per cent compared with 3.4 per cent in 2014. World Bank sees China growing at 7 per cent in the next two years.“India’s growth is expected to strengthen from 7.2 per cent last year to 7.5 per cent this year and next. Growth will benefit from recent policy reforms, a consequent pickup in investment, and lower oil prices,” IMF’s World Economic Outlook said.The strong growth in India has already made South Asia the fastestgrowing region in the world, World Bank noted.India’s expected growth acceleration, World Bank noted in its twiceyearly South Asia Economic Focus report, is being “driven by business-oriented reforms and improved investor sentiment” and that growth could reach 8 per cent in fiscal year 2017-18 on the back of significant acceleration in investment growth.“(India) is attempting to shift from consumption- to investmentled growth at a time when China is undergoing the opposite transition,” it noted.World Bank said South Asia was the greatest global beneficiary of cheap oil as all countries were net importers.“Together with favourable food prices, cheaper oil has contributed to a rapid deceleration of inflation. South Asia went from having the highest inflation rate among developing regions to having the lowest in barely one year,” it noted, while urging countries to take greater advantage of cheap oil to reform energy pricing.IMF said in many economies softer oil will help reduce inflation and lower external vulnerability and open room for structural reforms. IMF sees crude prices on average nearly 40 per cent lower on a year ago in 2015, rising 12 per cent in 2016. “Lower oil prices will raise real disposable incomes, particularly among poorer households, and help drive down inflation,” IMF said for India, as it called upon countries to press ahead with subsidy reforms.“On the fiscal policy front, and following the lead of India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, countries should seize the opportunity provided by the current low fuel and food prices to further reform or phase out subsidies, which tend to be poorly targeted,” IMF said.IMF says India’s inflation is expected to remain close to target in 2015. It sees consumer price inflation at 6 per cent in FY15, declining to 5.7 per cent in the following year. The latest data show consumer price inflation at 5.1 per cent in March. RBI has a 6 per cent inflation target by January 2016.IMF has also forecast a stable current account deficit, pegged at 1.3 per cent in FY15 and 1.6 per cent in FY16. World Bank, on its part, pegged the current account deficit at well below 2 per cent in the medium term and noted that India “has a resilient external position” less than two years after the rupee depreciation episode.