Mumbai: The pace of India’s economic expansion in the September quarter will likely exceed expectations, central bank governor Shaktikanta Das said Tuesday, underscoring the country’s world-leading growth prospects that remain largely unaffected by a visible slackening in global trade and the steepest climb in risk-free rates since the Global Financial Crisis.”I must qualify, because ultimately the numbers will tell for themselves – but looking at the momentum of economic activity, looking at a few early data points which have come in, a few early indicators, I can say that the second quarter GDP number, as and when it is released at the end of November, in all probability will surprise everyone on the upside,” Das told delegates at a finance industry conclave in Mumbai.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected India’s GDP growth at 6.5% for FY24. Its estimate for the Jul-Sep quarter GDP expansion is also set at 6.5%.To be sure, India’s economy expanded at 7.8% in the April-June period, versus the RBI’s projection of 8%.For 2023, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated India’s economic growth at 6.3%, compared with 5% for China. Speaking about JPMorgan’s recent decision to announce the inclusion of Indian government bonds in its emerging market bond index, Das said that the RBI was well-equipped to handle any swings in foreign investment flows.Bond Index Inclusion”It’s a double-edged sword. The other hand, as you well know, there are lots of passive investors who are mainly influenced by your weightage in the index,” Das said. “The reverse can also happen. When your weightage goes down, the passive funds will automatically move out or when there is some other development globally happening, there can be outflow of funds.”Late September, JP Morgan said that India would be included in its GBI-EM Global index suite starting June 28, 2024. India is expected to reach the maximum weight of 10% in the GBI-EM Global Diversified Index and the inclusion of domestic government bonds would be staggered over a 10-month period.Given that the GBI-EM GD accounts for $ 213 billion of the estimated $236 billion benchmarked to the GBI-EM family of indices, India’s inclusion could potentially attract foreign inflows worth $20-25 billion.”In this regard, I would like to mention that RBI has a track record over the years and especially in the recent period, of handling large-scale inflows and large-scale outflows,” Das said.”In terms of market sentiment, I think the overseas investors have greater confidence in India’s ability, the RBI’s ability, to service the outflow of currency… that was because of the reserves which we built up,” he said.