Chidambaram Raises Concern Over GDP Quarterly Growth, Says ‘No Sign Of The Promised Recovery’

The Congress leader said India's economic growth in 2021-22 was “barely above the level achieved in” 2019-20

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram

Source : Getty

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram raised concerns over the National Statistical Office (NSO) provisional estimates released on Tuesday saying the most striking graph is the quarterly growth rate. The Congress leader tweeted on Wednesday, “That graph tells all. The growth rate is weakening with every quarter and there is no sign of the promised ‘recovery’.”

The NSO estimates shows India's GDP growth for the last quarter of the financial year 2021-22 at 4.1 per cent, 0.7 percentage points lower than the February projections.

“The NSO figures are out: the most striking graph is the quarterly growth rates in 2021-22 of 20.1, 8.4, 5.4 and 4.1 per cent," former finance minister tweeted. In another tweet, Chidambaram noted that India's economic growth in 2021-22 was “barely above the level achieved in” 2019-20.

The NSO figures are out: the most striking graph is the quarterly growth rates in 2021-22 of 20.1, 8.4, 5.4 and 4.1 per cent

That graph tells all. The growth rate is weakening with every quarter and there is no sign of the promised ‘recovery’

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) June 1, 2022

 "That means that after…two years, India’s Economy is at about the same level as it was on 31-3-2020,” he wrote. 

According to NSO's provisional estimates, the Indian economy is expected to have grown at 8.7 per cent during the last fiscal year, the fastest annual growth rate by a major economy.

GDP growth for the four quarters that ended March 2022 were 20.1 per cent, 8.4 per cent, 5.4 per cent, and 4.1 per cent, respectively. The corresponding numbers for 2020-21 were minus 23.8 per cent, minus 6.6 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent.

Even as the GDP levels in 2021-22 have crossed pre-pandemic levels, the per capita GDP and per capita private final consumption expenditure for 2021-22 continued to be lower than 2019-20 levels in real terms.

So far in FY23, recovery in India’s domestic macros have been resilient to risks arising from global developments; however, supply side challenges and inflation spikes, which could dampen consumption and investments in the economy, poses near term risk to India’s economic growth."