India Still Projected As Fastest Growing Economy: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has been taking several measures to increase the GDP growth and despite some recent deceleration in growth, the goal of $5 trillion economy will be achieved by 2025

India Still Projected As Fastest Growing Economy: FM Nirmala Sitharaman/ Photo Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: In a written reply to a question from N.K. Premachandran, MP from Kerala, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday agreed in the Lok Sabha that India's economic growth decelerated but its economy is still the fastest growing in FY20 among the G-20 nations. She said the government has been taking several measures to increase the GDP growth and despite some recent deceleration in growth, the goal of $5 trillion economy will be achieved by 2025. The Finance Minister also said that the the government is trying its best to address moderate levels of fixed investment rate in the economy, plateauing of private consumption rate and a modest export performance. "During the last five years, the government has implemented major reforms to build the investment climate in the country for becoming a $5 trillion-dollar economy," the minister said. The World Economic Outlook (WEO) of October 2019 projects a significant slowdown in world output and trade in 2019. Yet India, despite some recent deceleration of GDP growth, is still projected by WEO to grow at the fastest rate in 2019-20 among G-20 countries, she said. On a question whether the government has analysed the impact of implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on economic slowdown, Sitharaman said the GST reform stands out as the most important measure for improving ease of doing business in the country. "Further, in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2020 Report, India's ranking improved by 14 positions to 63 in 2019 from 77 in 2018 after GST was implemented in 2017," Sitharaman said. On the impact of implementation of foreign trade agreements and economic slowdown, she said: "The government has also been engaging with various stakeholders to understand their concerns and taking appropriate measures for the economy". India's economic growth slowed down to 5% in the Q1 and is expected to have declined further in the second quarter for which official data is expected later this month. In her statement Sitharaman further said the 15% corporate tax rate for new domestic manufacturing companies announced in September was "amongst the lowest in the world". (With Inputs from IANS)