Ex-minister Chidambaram says CSO figures on growth proved us correct

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data on GDP has proved the Congress correct and the government wrong on the impact of demonetisation, and warned that if corrective steps are not taken now, the economy will slide even further.

“I had said demonetisation will affect growth by 1-1.5 per cent. Spot on. GVA down by 1.3 per cent,” said Chidambaram on his official Twitter account.

“Economy began slowing down in July 2016. Demonetisation made it worse,” he added.

“The GDP figures have been published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). As we had predicted, the economy has taken a big hit by the new method of measurement of Gross Value Addition where there is a decline from 7.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 6.6 per cent in 2016-17,” said Chidambaram in a video message.

“That’s a decline of 1.3 per cent, and you’ll remember that when demonetisation was done I had predicted that the economy will take a hit between 1 and 1.5 per cent,” he added. Chidambaram added:

“What the Congress and the opposition have been saying has been proved true. The economy was slowing down in the middle of 2016.

“Instead of taking corrective measures, the government came up with this extraordinarily foolish measure of demonetisation and that has set back the economy even further.”

“In the meanwhile, millions of peo- ple plunged into misery. We have been pointing out that the three indicators of a vibrant economy are down. The first is investment to GDP ratio, the second is credit growth, and the third is the number of jobs that were created,” the former Union Minister said.

Chidambaram also said in all three indicators, the government has “totally failed” and the CSO proved them correct and the government wrong.

“I don’t know how the government will go forward, how long can the gov- ernment fool itself and fool the people of India by saying all is well and we are on the right course. All is not well. We are not on the right course. Investments are declining, credit growth is negative to most sectors and there are no jobs,” he said.

“The economy is going down very rapidly and unless corrective measures are taken, the economy will go down even further. We have warned the government.

“We are forewarning the people of India. Let’s see how the government responds to the CSO’s figures,” he added.

Demonetisation took a toll on the Indian economy with the Gross Domestic Product during the fourth quarter, ending March this year, falling sharply to 6.1 per cent from seven per cent in the previous quarter while growth for the year as a whole also declined correspondingly.

Data released by the official statistician on Wednesday showed that India’s GDP during the past fiscal grew at 7.1 per cent, at a rate lower than the 8 per cent achieved in 2015-16.