THE International Monetary Fund is engaging closely with the Indian government on the COVID-19 pandemic and stands ready to strengthen its dialogue and scale-up its technical collaboration, spokesperson Mr Gerry Rice said during a press briefing on Thursday.

When asked how the IMF is providing assistance to take care of the Indian economy and ensure more people do not fall into poverty, Mr Rice observed that the human tragedy is a stark reminder that the pandemic continues to be a grave threat globally.

"We are following the events in India very closely. And we hope that the number of new infections will continue to decline," said Mr Rice, adding "We continue to engage closely with the Indian authorities. We stand ready to strengthen our dialogue and scale-up our technical collaboration."

India has been crippled by the second wave of COVID-19 infections, with cases climbing to 2.57 crore and fatalities at 2.87 lakh.

"At the IMF we are redoubling our effort to foster global collaboration… I would reiterate that a multilateral response is critical to overcome the pandemic in India and globally," said the Director of IMF’s Communications Department.

Noting India’s economic importance, he said the IMF will be revisiting their growth forecast for the country and for the global economy in the July update of the World Economic Outlook.

"For India, on the economy, it will be critical to continue with a coordinated policy response to fight the pandemic including through accelerating the vaccination campaign, providing fiscal resources to the health sector, and social support to the most vulnerable," said Mr Rice.

The IMF had earlier raised its projection for India's economic growth in the current financial year by one percentage point to 12.5 per cent, making it the only major world economy to see double-digit growth in FY22.