Blog

How India’s Economic Rise Could Bolster America’s Economy

Narendra Modi’s pro-reform government could do for the next decade what China did at the turn of the millennium.

In the coming weeks, the new government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi—elected with a huge mandate and parliamentary majority in May—will release its first budget. Modi campaigned on a program of radically reforming the Indian economy, and this budget—and indeed his entire economic program—is hotly anticipated.

Modi has been a controversial figure in India. His party, the BJP, emerged as a Hindu nationalist institution, and Modi will have to show that he means to govern as a secular leader.* That said, if he succeeds in restructuring the Indian economy and integrating India more deeply into the global economic system, India might well do for the next decade what China did for the global system in the years after 2000.

Like China then, India has an immense population (1.2 billion, just about where China was in 2000) and has an economy that’s been touted as the next new thing, only to halt and sputter. China before 2000 was the place where Western dreams of avarice went to die. For much of the 20th century, Western investors venturing to China found only grief.

After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China’s growth averaged over 10 percent a year for the next decade. The nation became the dominant importer of raw material and high-end equipment, one of the biggest manufacturing nations globally, and the largest consumer market in the world. If India can pull off in the next decade even a fraction of what China did in the 2000s, the global economy—and specifically the American economy—will start looking substantially more robust than the current consensus would have it.

For many years, there have been serious concerns about long-term growth in India. Led by a rickety Congress Party coalition, the previous government couldn’t break the cycle of subpar economic performance and part the thickets of bureaucracy and corruption precluding reform. These failures were prime reasons for Modi’s victory. Even with Modi’s win, expectations for India haven’t been radically adjusted: India’s economy is still expected to grow 5.5 percent this year and a bit over 6 percent next year, according to the World Bank.

India currently has a per capita gross domestic product of about $1,500 a year in nominal dollars and about $5,400 in purchasing power; by comparison, China today is $6,800 in nominal terms and $11,900 in terms of purchasing power. But in 2000, the gap was much narrower; in purchasing power terms, China was at about $2,800 while India was at $2,000. In those days, neither China nor India was seen as a major contributor to global economic growth. In its annual publication in 2000, the International Monetary Fund didn’t even discuss China until well into the report, and then only in a few brief paragraphs.

As we now know, China became the economic story of the decade. Rather than becoming primarily an importing nation, as the IMF predicted, China built a massive pile of foreign reserves, became a significant lender to the U.S., and created the fastest-growing consumer market in the world. In the process, it provided markets for U.S. companies ranging from GE to Nike to Ralph Lauren to Procter & Gamble. It was the primary growth engine for hundreds of foreign companies, many of them American, that either gained business helping China’s industrial build-out or became a market for Chinese consumers. The rise of China was one reason why the economic crises of 2001–02 and 2008–09, painful though they were, were not substantially worse.

One of the first things the Chinese government did to accelerate its growth path was to open itself to foreign investment and competition—a process that accelerated after China joined the WTO. China also embarked on a massive urbanization program, crafting the world’s most modern infrastructure and then encouraging the move of hundreds of millions of people into cities. That process is not nearly complete.

Now, India looks to follow a similar path. While China has a centralized command-and-control government in Beijing, India has all the strengths and weaknesses of messy, decentralized democracy. But Beijing has always been more constrained in its dealings with provincial authorities than it’s commonly assumed, and India has a powerful central government that for more than 20 years has been constrained by coalition governments with no clear mandate.

And on the plus side, India has a larger and more consumer-oriented urban middle class today than China did in 2000. Modi’s government is widely expected to give priority to massive infrastructure projects and to more efficient taxes as well as middle-class tax relief. Modi has also indicated that he wants to open India to more foreign businesses. The inability of foreign companies to operate in India, along with domestic corruption, has presented a serious economic obstacle.

Modi has already demonstrated his focus on attracting foreign firms and foreign capital—a model he honed as chief minister for the state of Gujarat. But national laws hampered those efforts: India has restrictive regulations governing foreign firms’ ownership of Indian subsidiaries that have repelled foreign investment and business. In recent weeks, Modi’s new government has called specifically for India’s defense industry to open itself to competition. That may not be the most PR-friendly area for expansion, but opening the door to foreign defense firms is at least a first step toward opening up other industries. Modi’s government has also announced plans to up the limit of foreign investment in insurance companies.

These may be only hints of what’s to come. Even before Modi’s election, some observers have bet on India becoming the third-largest consumer base in the world by around 2030. More modest estimates see it as the fifth-largest consumer market by 2025.

But what if, with the aid of Modi’s reforms, India’s growth outstrips even the more optimistic predictions? What if instead of growing an anticipated 6 percent a year, India accelerates to 8 percent or 9 percent a year, with several hundred millions of ascendant middle-class consumers becoming more than half a billion in 15 years, or even 10. The demand for goods, services, and materials will far exceed current expectations, which will appreciably catalyze global growth.

Obviously, it is easier to have boundless potential than to deliver true dynamic change. If Modi and his party do deliver, the impact will be felt not just in India but across the global economy. The effect will be comparable to what happened after 2001, as China blossomed much more rapidly than anyone expected—and that in turn will notably impact U.S. growth. More Nike sales in China between 2000 and 2010 certainly boosted Nike’s profitability. More Caterpillar sales in China in those years did the same for Caterpillar parts suppliers in Mississippi and other parts of the U.S. The same point could be made for any number of American companies and the resulting effects on the domestic economy.

A surging India is one of those X factors that can radically alter our assumed glide path. We are all intuitively aware of looming black swans and other negative X factors that can sink us: war in the Ukraine, the dissolution of Iraq, climate change. We are less attuned to the X factors that can bolster us. China was one of those X factors a decade ago. India is one today.

*Update, July 2, 2014: This sentence has been updated to clarify that Modi has to show he aims to govern as a secular leader.

This post originally appeared on Slate.

Featuring

Articles By This Author

The Envestnet Edge, May/June 2018 Video: Five (Investing) Rules To Live By The Envestnet Edge, March/April 2018 Video: Buy The Dips Video: No Place Like Home? Market Bias Perceptions and Realities The Envestnet Edge, February 2018 The Envestnet Edge, January 2018 Video: Raging or Aging: How Much Longer Will the Bull Last? Webinar Replay: 2018 Market Outlook The Envestnet Edge, December 2017 Video: Bitcoin, Bubbles, and the Bigger Picture The Envestnet Edge, November 2017 Video: Taxes are certain, but don't obsess about tax reform The Envestnet Edge, October 2017 Video: Time to stock up on growth or value? The Envestnet Edge, September 2017 Video: Time To Take A (Measured) Risk? The Envestnet Edge, July/August 2017 Video: Bitcoin: Buy Or Buyer Beware? The Envestnet Edge, June 2017 Video: FANG, FAAMG: Too Big a Bite of the Market? The Envestnet Edge, May 2017 Video: Invest "As If" The Envestnet Edge, April 2017 Video: What To Do In Quiet Markets The Envestnet Edge, March 2017 Video: Bull Or Bear: Should Investors Still Care? PMC Weekly Review - March 10, 2017 The Envestnet Edge, February 2017 Video: Separating markets from politics, is it really a "Trump rally"? The Envestnet Edge, January 2017 Video: Investing in Trump’s Economy? Proceed With Caution The Envestnet Edge, December 2016 Video: Have We Only Just Begun? The Envestnet Edge, November 2016 Video: Rotations, Reversals, Rising Rates: A Time to Reposition Post-Election, Will Markets and Portfolios Emerge Winners or Losers? Webinar Replay: Post-Election Winners and Losers The Envestnet Edge, October 2016 Video: In a 2-2-2 world, look for modest economic growth and expansion PMC Weekly Review - September 16, 2016 The Envestnet Edge, September 2016 Video: Diversification is working in 2016 (so far) The Envestnet Edge, July/August 2016 Video: Valuations: it's all relative Brexit: Plunging into the Unknown? The Envestnet Edge, June 2016 Video: Equity valuations and bond yields: reach no further PMC Weekly Review - June 17, 2016 The Envestnet Edge, May 2016 Video: Hitting singles: a measured approach for this investing season The Envestnet Edge, April 2016 Video: Investing with impact: increasingly a matter-of-fact Video: In this election cycle, will investors be winners or losers? The Envestnet Edge, March 2016 PMC Weekly Review - March 11, 2016 Video: In a low-growth world, less could be more The Envestnet Edge, February 2016 The Envestnet Edge, January 2016 Video: Markets are a mess, but don't jump to conclusions yet A Most Challenging Year Video: Interest Rates and Energy: The Highs and Lows of Year-End The Envestnet Edge, December 2015 The Envestnet Edge, November 2015 Video: We'll always have Paris The Envestnet Edge, October 2015 Video: Politics and the markets: déjà vu all over again? Video: China, Commodities, and Crisis: What's Next for Emerging Markets? The Envestnet Edge, September 2015 PMC Weekly Review - September 11, 2015 Is This The Big One (Financially Speaking)? Probably Not. The Envestnet Edge, August 2015 Video: In a "meh" market, look again at U.S. stocks The Envestnet Edge, July 2015 Video: Is this the Big One? What to do in a financial crisis Don't Worry About China Don’t Believe the Hype About Greece The Greek Catastrophe Is Finally Here (Unless It Isn’t) The Envestnet Edge, May/June 2015 Video: When Following the Herd is Risky, Where is the Safety? The Envestnet Edge, April 2015 Video: The End of Short-Termism is Long Overdue PMC Weekly Review - April 24, 2015 The Envestnet Edge, March 2015 Video: Keep Your Friends Close and Your Robo-Advisor Closer The Envestnet Edge, February 2015 Video: The Return of the Comeback: Is 2015 the Year for International Stocks? PMC Weekly Review - February 13, 2015 Why the Jobs Report Means Diddly Don’t Turn America Into Europe PMC Weekly Review - January 23, 2015 Video: Active and Passive: The Yin and Yang of Investing The Envestnet Edge, January 2015 Will Politics in 2015 Catch Up with the Economy? Video: Our Perspective on 2015: Maintain Yours The Envestnet Edge, December 2014 PMC Market Commentary: December 12, 2014 No, This Is NOT the '90s Economy Again PMC Market Commentary: November 14, 2014 Video: 2014 U.S. Midterms: A Win for Stocks? The Envestnet Edge, November 2014 Whose Economy Will It Be in 2016? PMC Market Commentary: October 17, 2014 Video: Special Video Commentary: Market Volatility and Fundamentals The Envestnet Edge, October 2014 Video: You Know What’s Not Sustainable? Ignoring the Opportunity in Impact Investing Don’t Panic! PMC Market Commentary: October 10, 2014 Greenberg’s Folly Naomi Klein Is Wrong PMC Market Commentary: September 26, 2014 Subprime Loans Are Back! The Envestnet Edge, September 2014 Video: When it Comes to Interest Rates, Who Says What Comes Down Must Go Up? PMC Market Commentary: September 12, 2014 Why Indie Bookstores Are on the Rise Again The Fed Is Not As Powerful As We Think PMC Market Commentary: August 22, 2014 Americans' Sour Mood on the Economy Doesn't Square with the Fact The Envestnet Edge, August 2014 Video: The World is in Crisis... the Markets are not PMC Market Commentary: August 8, 2014 PMC Market Commentary: July 25, 2014 Punitive Damages Video: Market Valuations and The Theory of Relativity The Envestnet Edge, July 2014 Don’t Kill the Export-Import Bank. Clone It. How India’s Economic Rise Could Bolster America’s Economy Video: Separating Risk from Reality PMC Market Commentary: June 27, 2014 No Sex Please, We're French PMC Market Commentary: June 13, 2014 The Envestnet Edge, June 2014 PMC Weekly Market Review, May 23, 2014 The Envestnet Edge, May 2014 Don't Bet on Rising Wages PMC Market Commentary: May 9, 2014 The Sharing Economy: Why Are So Many So Afraid? PMC Market Commentary: April 25, 2014 The Obsession with CEO Pay Won't Help the Middle Class PMC Market Commentary: April 11, 2014 Time to Face Reality: Our Unemployment Problems Are Structural PMC Market Commentary: March 28, 2014 In Defense of Relentless Optimism The "Made in China" Fallacy Forget GDP - Use Big Data