World Bank President David Malpass said on Thursday that he would travel to India and Pakistan later this month. "India is a good example of a country that's been able to grow fast" by improving its system and having more flexibility within the markets of this system, Malpass told reporters. There's more progress that can be made, he added.

India has halved its poverty rate since the 1990s and achieved a seven plus growth rate over the last 15-years, the World Bank said. India is both critical to the success of global development efforts, including eliminating extreme poverty, and as an influential leader for global goods such as addressing climate-change, the bank said ahead of the annual meeting between it and the IMF.

India's growth rate is projected to fall to 6% in the financial-year of 2019-20 from 6.9% a year-ago, the World Bank said. However, the country was expected to gradually recover to 6.9% in 2021 and 7.2% in 2022 as it assumed that the monetary stance would remain accommodative, given benign price dynamics, the bank said in its latest-edition of the South Asia Economic Focus.