Nirmala Sitharaman: GDP to grow at 9.2%, no question of recession

New Delhi, February 11

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Budget was forward-looking and would bring stability to the economy. She claimed there was no question of a slowdown or recession, as she cited an estimated 9.2 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal year.

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Replying to a debate on the Budget in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, she said, “The budgetary provisions are aimed at the next 25 years when India will attain 100 years of Independence. If we do not have a vision, we will end up like 65 years of the Congress when everything was done for a particular family.”

She parried the Opposition charge that the economy in 2021-22 was marginally above the pre-pandemic levels. The Indian economy suffered an estimated loss of Rs 9.57 lakh crore due to the pandemic whereas the loss was Rs 2.12 lakh crore during the global meltdown in 2008-09.

“Our management of the inflation is that it is only 6.2 per cent and charged,” she said, accusing the Congress of being unable to handle inflation even though the crisis it had faced was less devastating than the pandemic.

On the charge that joblessness had risen to unprecedented levels, Sitharaman said the Opposition had cherry-picked the plan to provide 60 lakh jobs in the budgetary provisions. It had not taken into account that production-linked incentive (PLI) to encourage the setting up of new manufacturing units which will create many more new jobs.