Congress says 'I told you so' as IMF cuts growth rate citing note ban

With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying that India's economy has fallen back mostly because of "temporary negative consumption shock" following demonetisation, the Congress asserted that former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had warned against the drop, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the radical decision almost two months ago.

"Dr. Manmohan Singh warned against the drop in the beginning of demonetization. The ego of an individual has pushed billion ppl into trouble," the Indian National Congress said in a tweet.

Posting the link to an article by CNN Money talking about the IMF's World Economic Outlook, where India is estimated to have grown at 6.6% in 2016 compared with China's 6.7%, the Congress said that "In one blow PM Modi has done what Pakistan tried to do, unsuccessfully, for decades - push India backwards!"

In its forecasts, the IMF has lowered its forecasts for India in the current fiscal year by 1 percentage point.

"In India, the growth forecast for the current (2016-17) and next fiscal year were trimmed by one percentage point and 0.4 percentage point, respectively, primarily due to the temporary negative consumption shock induced by cash shortages and payment disruptions associated with the recent currency note withdrawal and exchange initiative," the report said.