Former Finance Secretary Garg expresses concern over GDP numbers, bats for reviving investments

Former Finance Secretary SC Garg on Friday, while commenting on the data related to the gross domestic product (GDP), stressed the need for reviving investments in the country.

Former Finance Secretary SC Garg on Friday, while commenting on the data related to the gross domestic product (GDP), stressed the need for reviving investments in the country. Referring to the slump in the economy, Garg told ANI: "This was quite expected as the indicators were showing. It is not very surprising."

The economic growth slowed to 4.5 per cent in the July to September quarter from 7.1 per cent in the corresponding period of last year, the government data showed on Friday. Expressing concern over the reduction in capital formation, the former Finance Secretary said: "It actually sounds a very major warning bell that we should get our act together in reviving investments."

He also expressed concern over the nominal GDP growth being 6.1 per cent and said that doubts remain if the growth would revive in third quarters considering the fact that the growth of core industries has contracted to 5.8 per cent. The economy had a weak performance last quarter with the GDP growth rate dropping to 5 per cent.

The slowdown in Q2 FY20 was largely due to a sharp dip in the manufacturing sector and agriculture output, said the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in a statement. The weak GDP growth in Q2 was also caused by grim industrial output data which contracted 0.4 per cent during the quarter against 3 per cent expansion in the preceding three months. (ANI)

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