‘Say Goodbye to $5 Trillion Economy’: Swamy on Economic Slowdown

“Neither boldness alone or knowledge alone can save the economy from a crash. It needs both,” Swamy tweeted saying.

Subramanian Swamy.

(Photo: PTI) 

A day after the GDP growth dropped to a near seven-year low, of 5 percent in the first quarter of 2019, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said, “Get ready to say good bye to ₹ 5 trillion if no new economic policy is forthcoming.”

The economic growth was 8 percent in the same quarter of 2018-19. This is the fourth straight quarter of slower growth.

The government has adopted a slew of measures to control the economic slowdown over the last few weeks. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on 30 August, announced that 10 public sector banks would be merged into four entities. The announcement came a week after Sitharaman unveiled a slew of measures to revive economic growth.

She announced measures to prop up the economy, two months after presenting the budget in parliament on 5 June. On 26 August, The RBI had announced that it would give the Centre Rs 1.76 lakh crore of its dividend and surplus reserves.

Over the last few months, among the sectors hit the most is the automobile, real estate and manufacturing industry. The slowdown was due to the weakened consumer demand and dearth of investments.

However, Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian on Friday said that the government is taking various steps to boost economic expansion. "The slowdown in growth is due to endogenous and exogenous factors," Subramanian said while commenting on the fresh GDP data. He said the government is taking all steps to revive the economy and expressed confidence that the country would be on a high-growth path "very soon".