Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Thursday said he was right in predicting slow growth of the economy and that demonetisation made it worse. “I had said demonetisation will affect growth by 1-1.5 per cent. Spot on. GVA down by 1.3 per cent,” said the former finance minister.
“The economy has taken a big hit by the new method of valuation, gross value addition”, he said.
Slamming the Centre by calling demonetisation an ‘extraordinarily foolish measure’, Chidambaram said that millions of people ‘plunged into misery’ because of the move. He also added that the three indicators of a ‘vibrant economy’ (Investment to GDP ratio, credit growth and the number of jobs created) are down and the government has totally failed in all three indicators, thereby, quoting that ‘the CSOs proved us correct and the government wrong’.
The Rajya Sabha MP also said, “I don’t know how long the government will fool the people of India and say ‘all is well’. All is not well, we are not in the right course. Investment is declining, credit growth is negative in most sectors, and there are no jobs. The economy is going down very rapidly. And unless corrective measures are taken, the economy will go down even further. We have warned the government and we are fore-warning the people of India. Let’s see how the government responds to the CSO figures”.
Data released by the official statistician on Wednesday showed that India’s GDP in this quarter plunged to 6.1% in Q4 from 7% in the previous quarter.
Watch the full statement of the former Finance Minister:
