Pune, Feb 25 (IANS): Predicting that India would be the third largest global economy within four-five years, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the rate at which the country's economy is growing, it could touch $35-40 trillion by 2047 - the centenary year of India's Independence, here.

Speaking at the Asia Economic Dialogue here, Goyal said that it is the desire of every Indian to be second to none, and India is not only the fastest growing economy, but will continue to be so for many decades to come.

Referring to the peculiar dynamics in Asia where there are economies which are both democracies and authoritarian, the Minister said that now India is clearly considered as the country of the decade, if not the country of the 21st century, in view of our strong macroeconomic fundamentals and the reforms of the past few years.

"We have already moved from the 10th largest to the 5th largest economy, and have a young demographic dividend that is being recognised as our biggest asset," Goyal pointed out.

Here, he said the Russia-Ukraine war has had a severe effect on the developed world compared with the developing countries, but for food and energy security and the consequential impact on inflation, interest rates and growth, it has devastated both the developed and developing nations.

Goyal recalled how in 2019, India decided against joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement as it could have spelt the death-knell of the manufacturing sector in this country.

He said that the previous government's move to join RCEP was ill-conceived and it hurt India's interests by making our people habituated to low-cost, sub-standard goods from China.

"The trade deficit with China which was under $2 billion around 15 - 16 years ago, increased to around 48 billion dollars by 2014. We allowed products to come from China while they stopped our products from India to go to China through legitimate or illegitimate reasons," Goyal explained.

The Minister said India is now a partner the world can trust and by converting the Covid-19 pandemic crisis into an opportunity, we attracted the global attention, came out with vaccines and inoculated the population at low cost, didna¿t let down a single international commitment and notched the highest exports in 2021-2022.

In his address, Goyal also touched on various other topics like 100 per cent indigenisation in the auto industry, spurring MSMEs to become more profitable, promoting green businesses, climate change, organic farming, etc that would drive us to achieve a target of $47-trillion economy by 2047.