Abject failure of govt's policies: Congress on latest GDP figures

The Congress on Tuesday claimed the latest GDP figures "reveal the continued abysmal performance" of the economy and the "abject failure" of the government's policies.

Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the country is way behind the revival stage and hoped the prime minister and the finance minister act on a revival plan soon.

"The latest 2nd quarter GDP figures reveal the continued abysmal performance of economy and abject failure of 'Modi-nomics'. The deeply flawed policies of Govt has ensured that economy hasn't even inched back to pre-covid growth rate, which was itself very poor," he said on Twitter.

"We are way behind the revival stage. Hope Prime Minister and the Finance Minister will act on a revival plan," he also said.

Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the country's economy has not yet shown a V-shaped recovery and there are sectors of the economy that are still "crippled".

"Let us extend a cautious welcome. It is not yet a 'V' shaped recovery. The fine print will bear that out," the former finance minister tweeted.

The country's GDP growth slowed to 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2021-22, mainly due to waning low base effect, but the economy has surpassed the pre-Covid level, official data showed on Tuesday.

"In 2021-22, GDP growth in Q1 was 20.1 percent on a previous year's Q1 growth of -24.4 percent. In Q2, the growth is reported as 8.4 percent on a previous year's Q2 growth of -7.4 percent," Chidambaram noted.

"There are sectors of the economy that are still "crippled" and need help and time to recover," he said.

Surjewala said "the cheerleaders of the government must know : The comparison can't be with 2nd quarter of Covid hit 2020-21. The real comparison is with 2019-20, which is pre-pandemic. The GDP at constant prices in Q2 2019-20 was Rs 35.84 Lakh Crore and in Q2 2021-22, it is Rs 35.73 Lakh Crore.

He said even in Q2 2019-20, the GDP growth rate was a meagre 4.5 percent.

"So, even if we compare it with a slowed down economy (as in 2019-20), the performance is abysmal this quarter" he said.

With low base of last year and a base of 2019-20, when growth had slowed down, a figure of close to Rs 40 Lakh Crore would indicate momentum and revival.

The GDP growth in April-June quarter this fiscal stood at 20.1 per cent. The Indian economy had contracted by 24.4 per cent in April-June last year.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by 7.4 per cent in the corresponding July-September quarter of 2020-21, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).