India’s economic growth slowed to 3.1% in January-March. (File)
New Delhi:
Congress said on Friday that weak GDP growth in the last quarter of 2019-2020 was the result of the BJP government’s failures, misplaced priorities and revealing commentary on its economic management.
While former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said 3.1% GDP growth in the January-March 2019-2020 quarter is a revealing comment on the economic management of the BJP government, the former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said that the way the government is in a mode of denial over its management of the economy will be really “parm-atma-nirbhar (dependent on God). “
“We expected fourth quarter GDP to bottom out at less than 4%. It turned out to be worse at 3.1%. This is a telling comment on the economic management of the BJP government,” tweeted. Mr. Chidambaram.
“Remember, this is a pre-lockout. Of the 91 days in the fourth quarter, the lockout only applied for 7 days,” said the senior congressional official.
“3.1 pc and 4.2 pc – these are not just numbers. It is the product of BJP Govt’s failures and misplaced priorities,” said Congressman on his official Twitter account.
Congress President Ramesh said, “Let it sink in. The latest GDP growth in the fourth quarter is the lowest in 11 years since India was hit by the global financial crisis. understands that a week of lockdown. “
“Mr. Modi has succeeded in weakening the Indian economy BEFORE the lockdown. Expect more”naatakbaazi (drama) “of his”ustad“tomorrow,” he tweeted.
“If the Modi government continues to deny mismanagement of the economy, India will really be”parm-atma-nirbhar“(dependent on God),” said Mr. Ramesh.
The former union minister said preliminary GDP estimates for the 19-20-20 fiscal years prove that the Modi government cannot hide its staggering incompetence in managing the economy by blaming it on COVID-19.
“The strong deceleration clearly evident before locking in. Estimate of 4.2 pc likely to drop below 4 pc when the actual figures arrive,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said it was the lowest GDP growth rate in the past 44 quarters.
“Full-year GDP at 4.2 pc, GVA at 3.9 pc, the lowest in the past 11 years,” he said.
“Who should be held responsible for the continuous fall in the economy over the past 4 years,” asked Vallabh.
He said there was no indication of any action to boost demand, and that the government had instead started pushing the whole country into deep debt through its flawed and lofty stimulus claims to counter COVID-19.
From the above figures, there is clear evidence that even before coronavirus cases started to increase in our country, the economy was struggling with a prolonged slowdown and a forced conversion to recession, said Mr. Vallabh.
“We are asking the nation to explain the failure of the highly commercialized” Make In India “program. The government should go ahead and accept the failure of demonetization and the poor implementation of the GST,” said he said in a statement.
Congressman spokesmen said that minus 1.4% manufacturing clearly indicates that demand has collapsed in the economy and is cause for concern. He said it shows the complete failure of the Make In India program.
He noted that factory output (IIP) had contracted by 16%, indicating significant pain in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector as well as a cause of high unemployment.
Industry growth to minus 0.6% (Q4FY20) is also a concern and this clearly indicates that the pain continues on the unemployment front in Q4 of FY20, said Vallabh.
The drop in services to 4.4% (Q4FY20) from 5.7% (Q3FY20) also indicates that the country’s strength has been significantly undermined due to wrong policies.
Vallabh alleged that despite a continuing decline since demonetization and a defective GST were imposed, the government has neither accepted its mistakes nor found a concrete solution to the downturn.
India’s economic growth slowed to 3.1% in January-March and to an 11-year low of 4.2% for the whole of the 2019-2020 fiscal year in a context of declining consumption and investments.
Growth in gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to 5.7% in the corresponding quarter of 2018-2019, according to data released Friday by the National Statistics Office (ONS).
During 2019-2020, the Indian economy grew by 4.2% compared to 6.1% in 2018-19. Economic growth was the weakest since 2008-2009, when the economy had grown to 3.1%. The government had imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 from March 25, 2020.
