Only days after former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan expressed his concerns over the economic condition of the country, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too shared his worries on the same adding the slowdown of the economy is the result of all round mismanagement of the Modi Government.
The veteran Congress leader’s comments come two days after government data showed that India’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in over six years in the quarter ended June 30.
Growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 5 per cent in the first quarter of current financial year (2019-20), compared with 5.8 per cent in the previous quarter, and 8.0 per cent in the quarter ended June 30, 2018.
“State of economy is deeply worrying. Last quarter GDP growth rate of 5% signals that we are in midst of prolonged slowdown,” the former PM was quoted saying.
“India cannot afford to continue down this path. Therefore, I urge the government to put aside vendetta politics, and reach out to all sane voices and thinking minds, to steer our economy out of this man-made crisis,” Dr Manmohan Singh said in a video statement.
“The last quarter’s GDP growth rate of 5 per cent signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown,” he said, adding that the country has the potential to grow at a much faster rate.
The Former Prime Minister has also served the country as the Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government and is widely recognised for the economic reforms he had then announced.
Singh also said that the current condition of the economy shows that it has not yet recovered from the blunders of demonetisation and hastily implemented GST.
He further expressed his concerns about the conditions in rural India and how the job conditions in the country with over 3.5 lakh jobs been lost in the automobile sector alone.
In its bid to push investments and revive growth, the government has recently announced a range of measures in the past few days, including easing of FDI or foreign direct investment norms in four sectors, and a reversal of higher taxes on foreign investors as announced in Budget.
On Friday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced reforms in the banking sector, merging several public sector banks.
