NEW DELHI: With no sign of the economy picking up in the near term, the Centre is likely to announce a stimulus package to boost GDP growth. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while talking to reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, said the government was mulling a handful of “additional measures” to strengthen the country’s economy.
Jaitley, who has been busy holding meetings with top officials and Cabinet colleagues over the past few days, said the government has taken note of the muted GDP growth, which hit a three-year low of 5.7 percent in the June quarter.
“We have taken note of all economic indicators which are available... the government will take any additional moves which are necessary. I am not in a position to announce today in the press conference. I will be certainly consulting the Prime Minister before that and when we decide, you will come to know,” he said.
The Finance Minister’s comments came a day after an SBI research report pointed out that India was indeed in a long-term slowdown mode. “We certainly believe that we are in a slowdown mode since September 2016 and a slowdown that has been prolonged to Q1 of this fiscal year is technically not short-term in nature or even transient,” the SBI research report had said.
Not long ago, India was hailed as a bright spot amid a gloomy global economy with its GDP growth surpassing a slowing China. However, the GDP growth has fallen for the past six consecutive quarters.
To add to the woes, exports are facing strong headwinds and the industrial growth is the lowest in five years. The current account deficit — the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange —rose to 2.4 percent of the GDP in April-June.
On Tuesday, Jaitley had held a high-level meeting to review the economic situation and discuss measures, including a possible stimulus package, to be taken amidst an economic slowdown. The meeting was attended by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and secretaries in the finance ministry — Ashok Lavasa, Subhash Chandra Garg, Hasmukh Adhia, Rajiv Kumar and Neeraj Kumar Gupta — among others.