Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2025 on February 1, 2025. Ahead of the Budget 2025 announcement, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram criticised the government's economic management, claiming that the country is grappling with a slowdown led by "rising inflation, stagnating wages, lack of jobs, and vast income inequality."
Chidambaram warned that the nation’s economic growth could drop by as much as 2 per cent compared to the previous year. He made these remarks while releasing the 'Real State of the Economy 2025' report, which was prepared by former party MP Rajeev Gowda and his team.
"The economy is in a slowdown... that cannot be denied at all, however, much the government may try to do that the economy is in a slowdown and it may fall up to two per cent of the previous year's growth," he said while addressing the press conference.
He added, “There are no jobs. Youth unemployment is close to 40 per cent. There are no jobs despite the PM handing out letters to people from time to time. That is just filling of vacant posts and does not involve the creation of new jobs.”
Chidambaram stated that wages have remained stagnant for the past four to five years.
“Inflation is raging, with food, education and healthcare inflation is in double digits. Inflation has been raging since 2-3 years,” the Congress leader said.
Acknowledging the significant income inequality, Chidambaram said he agrees that the top 20-30 per cent may be better off, but the remaining 70 per cent, particularly the bottom half, are surviving on just Rs 100-150 a day. “There is huge inequality and that gap between the rich and the poor is growing. The government has done nothing to deal with it,” he said.
Chidambaram stated that many of the facts highlighted in the report released by the party have been conveniently ignored by the Union government. "Therefore, Prof. Rajeev Gowda's team decided to present the report on the real state of the economy, even as the unreal state of the economy is put forward by the government everyday, every hour," the senior leader said.