States need to jack up growth, India is not in 5% trajectory: Debroy

Asserts there is significant volatility in India's GDP growth, citing examples of rate being less than 5% in one quarter, and going up to 7% in the very next quarter

There is no reason for despondency about falling growth rate, as India is not on a 5 per cent growth trajectory, said Bibek Debroy, chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), on Friday.
 
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019-20 (FY20), the slowest pace in six years. The lowest GDP projection for FY20 is 6.2 per cent, which is not a reason for gloom, given what is happening in the external sector, said Debroy at the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) banking colloquium in Kolkata.
 
There is a significant amount of volatility in India’s GDP growth, and there are cases where growth rate in one quarter is less than 5 per cent and in the very next quarter, it is 7 per cent, he added.

 

“If we want to have 8-8.5 per cent rate of growth, that is not going to happen in Delhi but in states...Half the states are above average, and if others can jack up their rates of growth, then 8-8.5 per cent rate of growth is doable,” said Debroy.