Efforts on to bring down inflation below 7%
ANDALIB AKHTER
Responding to the opposition’s fear that India will also be in a condition being faced by Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday told Lok Sabha that there was no question of India getting into stagflation or recession as macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Sitharaman while speaking on price rise, inflation in the Parliament on Monday said that there is no question of India getting into stagflation or recession and the government is making efforts to bring down retail inflation below 7 per cent despite Covid pandemic, supply-chain issues and Russia-Ukraine war among other global challenges. “We’ve never seen a pandemic of this kind… all of us were trying to make sure that people in our constituencies are given extra help. I recognise that everybody – MPs, State governments – has played their role. Otherwise, India wouldn’t be where it is compared to rest of the world,” Nirmala Sitharaman said. She hit out at the Congress party saying during UPA’s rule, the inflation was into double digits.
Finance Minister said, India remains the fastest growing economy in the assessment by global agencies and there is no question of the country going into stagflation and recession.
The Finance Minister said, the global supply chain was badly disrupted due to Covid-19 and despite that India could keep the inflation below seven per cent.
Referring to the previous UPA rule, she said there was more than nine per cent inflation for 22 months during the UPA government. During that time inflation was in double-digit for nine-time, she said.
Earlier, participating in the debate, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked whether the country is heading towards stagflation as, he claimed, the country’s economy is very precarious. He said income from agriculture has decreased against the government’s promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.
As Sitharaman was responding to Opposition’s demand for a discussion on inflation, Congress members staged a walk out from Lok Sabha when she started to reply.
“Without undermining some of the points that many members have said, I find that it was more a discussion on political angles of price rise rather than actually data-driven concerns about price. So, I too will try to reply a little politically,” she said before beginning her response on the issue.