NEW DELHI: Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that India still continues to be the fastest growing economy and demonetisation has had no effect on the Indian economy,
The minister, while
responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, said the manufacturing
sector has had a certain fall, but it is not attributable to
demonetisation. She said economic growth is high on the agenda of the
Government and various reforms are being undertaken in many spheres to
improve GDP growth.
Sitharaman said the moderation in growth momentum in 2018-19 is primarily on
account of lower growth in ‘Agriculture and allied’, ‘trade, hotel, transport,
storage, communication and services related to broadcasting’ and ‘public
administration and defence’ sectors,” she said
“If the impact of low growth in certain sectors has impacted growth rate, particularly in agriculture and allied activities as also in financial and real estate and professional services, there has been a fall, particularly in agriculture based on third advance estimates, it is believed that there has been a 0.6 per cent decline in the output.
“If the impact
on the low growth is because of outcomes from these sectors, the manufacturing
sector has had a certain fall but which is not attributable to
demonetisation,” the minister said. She said in the last quarter,
there could have been a fall and steps have been taken to improve the
economy. “But, we are still the fastest growing economy,” she
said.
Sitharaman said if the United States’ growth has grown between 1.6, 2.2, 2.9
and 2.3 per cent in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and China’s growth has also
decelerated from 6.7, 6.8, 6.6 and 6.3 per cent, India is still well above 7 per
cent at 7.3 per cent growth.