India’s real GDP growth in 2025 was higher than that of the US and China, according to Harvard Professor Jason Furman.

Harvard Professor Jason Furman has positioned India as the only country in the world with the highest real GDP growth since the Covid-19 pandemic, outpacing economic powerhouses like the United States and China.

The Covid-19 pandemic greatly impacted the global economy as it almost brought trade and travel to a standstill. Furman shared a graph, plotting real GDP as a percentage of pre-pandemic trends from 2019 to 2025 Q3, which shows that while most countries struggled from the 2020 downturn, India is the only country with positive growth, climbing towards +5% by mid-2025.

The chart tracks five major players: the United States (blue), the Euro Area (orange), China (grey), Russia (yellow), and India (green). All nations plunged into negative territory in 2020, India being hit the hardest with its GDP plunging to over -25%.

However, India bounced back fast and grew at a faster rate than others, and it reached at least 8% positive growth by mid-2025, far above the trend line (0%).

On the other hand, China was the biggest underperformer, with its economic performance lagging far behind during the Covid-era, but it managed to recover to the trend line. However, its economy started falling from late 2022, and its GDP declined to the lowest by 2025.

The United States was also hit by the pandemic, but it recovered swiftly by 2025, buoyed by aggressive fiscal stimulus like the American Rescue Plan. However, its performance remained far below India’s economic growth. Moreover, Russia’s economy was battered by US sanctions and the Ukraine conflict.

The graph shows that India remains the standout performer in the post-Covid era as the fastest-growing economy, due to a boost in domestic consumption and investment. Robust digital infrastructure, a young demographic dividend, and reforms like production-linked incentives have fuelled 7-8% annual growth, per IMF estimates.

Exports in electronics and pharmaceuticals hit record highs, while services like IT outsourcing weathered global slowdowns. Policies and fiscal prudence of the Indian government contained the fiscal deficits below 6% of GDP, allowed room for targeted spending on infrastructure and social safety nets.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underscored the resilience of the Indian economy, revising its growth forecast for the fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26) upwards to 6.6%, according to its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report. his positive revision marks a 20-basis-point increase from the 6.4% forecast in July, positioning India as a key global growth engine even as worldwide economic prospects dim.

The upgrade for India comes despite a challenging global environment, which the IMF projects will see overall global growth moderate from 3.3% in 2024 to 3.2% in 2025 and 3.1% in 2026. The Fund attributes India’s robust outlook primarily to a strong economic performance in the first quarter of FY26, which saw the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grow at a five-quarter high of 7.8%.