Airports, trains full, people getting married; Suresh Angadi dismisses economic slowdown concerns

Dismissing the opposition's criticism over the state of the economy, Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi on Friday said that the economy is doing fine as the airports and trains across the country are full and people are getting married.

"Airports are full, trains are full, people are getting married. Some people are doing this for nothing else but to malign the image of Narendra Modi," Angadi told reporters during an inspection of the soon to be commissioned Tunda-Khurja eastern dedicated freight corridor.

Noting that the economy slows down every three years and will pick up soon, the Union Minister said that some people are trying to malign the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Every three years there is a fall in demand in the economy. It is a cycle. Then the economy picks up also," he said.

The opposition parties have been criticising the government over the state of the economy and plan to raise the issue in the upcoming Winter Session of the Parliament.

Moody's Investors Service had on Thursday said that India's economic slowdown is lasting longer than previously expected and pegged its forecast for the gross domestic product (GDP) growth of the country at 5.6 per cent in 2019 calendar year.

"We have revised down our growth forecast for India. We now forecast slower real GDP growth of 5.6 per cent in 2019 from 7.4 per cent in 2018," it said in the Global Macro Outlook for 2020-21.