Prime Minister Narendra Modi today refuted criticism of his government's handling of the economy, stating a "handful of people" are trying to spread a contagion of pessimism based on the slowdown of just one economic quarter. His defence was offered days after former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie warned that the two major reforms of demonetization and the new national sales tax (GST) were poorly timed. Economic growth slowed in the last quarter to 5.7 per cent, the lowest in three years.