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Regular-article-logo Friday, 26 April 2024

Modi's scanner on economy

India’s economic growth has slowed to 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 — the slowest pace since 2014-15

Our Special Correspondent New Delhi Published 15.08.19, 07:00 PM
Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday

Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the state of the economy with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other officials and discussed stimulus measures to prop it up.

Finance ministry officials briefed the Prime Minister on the issues the sectors were facing and the measures that could be taken to boost growth, officials said.

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The ministry has been meeting different industry and sectoral representatives in the past week to understand the issues and the possible solution to address them.

The review meeting, the officials said, was to assess the nature of the slowdown and its long-term impact. There are expectations that the government would come out with sector-specific stimulus sometime soon.

India’s economic growth has slowed to 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 — the slowest pace since 2014-15.

While the finance ministry has remained tight-lipped on measures being contemplated to take the economy out, the Reserve Bank governor had earlier this month stated that the slowdown is more cyclical than structural and the growth is expected to pick up by the fourth quarter.

The auto sector is facing its worst crisis in two decades and reports predict thousands of job losses in the automobile and ancillary industry.

In the real estate sector, the number of unsold homes has increased, while fast-moving consumer goods companies have reported a decline in volume growth in the first quarter.

Though lending by banks to industries has shown a significant jump from 0.9 per cent in the April-June quarter in 2018 to 6.6 per cent for the same period this year, the same to job-creating MSME sector has slipped from 0.7 per cent in 2018 to 0.6 per cent in the June quarter.

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