Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday said that the country may not reach its target of being a $5-trillion economy if “no new economic policy is forthcoming”. Swamy’s comments followed the news of India’s Gross Domestic Product growth falling to 5% in the April-June quarter – the fourth straight quarter of slower growth and the slowest growth in over six years.
“Neither boldness alone or knowledge alone can save the economy from a crash,” Swamy tweeted. “It needs both. Today we have neither.”
The government adopted a slew of measures to control the economic slowdown in the last few weeks. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced that 10 public sector banks would be merged into four entities. The announcement came a week after she unveiled a slew of measures to revive economic growth.
Last week, Sitharaman had announced a set of measures to prop up the economy, less than two months after presenting the Union Budget. The Reserve Bank of India had also announced last week that it would give the Centre Rs 1.76 lakh crore of its dividend and surplus reserves.
In the last few months, core sectors such as automobiles, manufacturing and real estate, witnessed a progressive slowdown in growth due to weakened consumer demand and dearth of investments. Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian on Friday attributed the slowdown in the growth of Gross Domestic Product to domestic and global factors. He added that the government was taking steps to improve the situation.
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