India & China: Saviors of the world economy

TOI: China and India — the only sizeable economies likely to record growth rates of over 5% — will prevent the world from recording negative growth in 2009, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday. 

The IMF's update to its World Economic Outlook is a sharp downward revision from the 2.2% growth in global output it had projected as recently as November last year. It now estimates the Chinese economy will grow at 6.7% rather than the 8.5% anticipated in November, while the forecast for India has been pared from 6.3% to 5.1%.

That is some good news after all. This growth rate is being attributed to Indian 'thrift' habits. Indians on an average save almost 34% of their earnings. If you are not, then better start now.