The GDP for this year will only be 7 per cent. This is very unfortunate: Kapil Sibal
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Friday hit out at the BJP-led central government saying its leaders are more interested in giving speeches and writing blogs than working towards the development of the country.
His statement came a day after India's GDP or gross domestic product growth stood at 6.6 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, 2018, marking the slowest rate of GDP expansion recorded since the quarter ended September 2017.
"It is a very, very shocking state of affairs that after an absolute majority that this government had, they had a free run on the economy, they could have brought in some radical changes, but they lost out these opportunities. The latest figure shows that the core sector growth is only 1.6 per cent. For the last six quarters, this has been the lowest rate of growth (6.6 per cent) in this quarter," Mr Sibal told news agency ANI.
"As per the date given out, the GDP for this year will only be 7 per cent. This is very unfortunate because they had a great opportunity to turn things around. They lost that opportunity. All that they are interested in is giving speeches, writing blogs, telling the world how India has changed for the better but the figures don't show that," he added.
The growth in GDP during 2018-19 is estimated at 7 per cent as compared to the growth rate of 7.2 per cent in 2017-18, the Ministry of Statistics said in its statement. The Reserve Bank of India, however, has estimated GDP growth at 7.4 per cent in 2018-19.
For the next financial year, the RBI has projected GDP growth to be in the range of 7.2-7.4 per cent in the first half, and 7.5 per cent in the third quarter.