To news agency ANI he said, “Growth was declining because of rising NPAs in banking sector. Because under previous governor Mr Rajan they brought in new mechanisms to identify stressed NPAs & these continued to go up which is why banking sector stopped giving credit to industry”
He further added " “It is a continuation of a trend of a declining growth, and why was this growth declining, it was declining because of the rising NPAs in the banking sector. When this government came into office that figure was 4 lakh crore, it rose to 10.5 lakh crore by the middle of 2017 because under the previous RBI governor, Mr. Rajan, they had identified mechanisms to identify stressed and non-performing assets which is why the banks stopped giving credit to industries,” .
When asked why the growth had slowed down post demonetization, he said “there was already a declining trend in the economy. Starting from the last quarter of 2015-16, the growth rate had come down for six successive quarters.”