NEW DELHI, June 1:
Reacting to the Government figures that put the GDP growth for the quarter between January and March, 2017 at 6.1 per cent, the Congress today said the latest numbers exposed the lies of the NDA regime at the Centre.
”Latest numbers on the economy expose the lies of the BJP Government. First unemployment rises, now GDP growth falls,” AICC senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said.
Reacting to the figures, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, said, ”I had said demonetisation will affect growth by 1-1.5 pr cent. Spot on. GVA down by 1.3 per cent.”
The Indian Economy began slowing down in July 2016 and that demonetisation made it worse. ”Between Q4 of 2015-16 and Q4 of 2016-17, growth declined by 3.1 per cent,” Mr Chidambaram tweeted. Another AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said, ”AccheDinEconomy-New DEA data for April 2017 shows GDP down to 7.1 per cent (5.1 per cent at 2004-05) Base year. IIP down 2.7 per cent. 8 core sectors down to 5 per cent).
AICC spokesperson Partap Singh Bajwa accused the government of indulging in self glorification instead of focussing on real issues. ”GDP is falling, layoffs in IT sector and rising unemployment.
The Government should focus on these real issues instead of self glorification,” he said. Latest government data says that India’s GDP grew 6.1 per cent year-on-year during the January-March period. Experts say with this, India has lost its status of the world’s fastest growing economy. China’s GDP grew 6.9 per cent during the same quarter.
The GDP growth rate for the full year (2016-17 ) came in at 7.1 per cent in line with official estimate compared to a revised growth figure of 8 per cent in FY16. The experts said the NDA Government’s demonetisation drive that scrapped high-value currency notes last year in November in a bid to curb black money likely had an impact on the GDP numbers.
The Congress has charged the Centre with fudging figures to present a rosy picture of the Indian economy. (UNI)
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