Sitharaman lists seven indicators of green shoots in economy, says country on growth trajectory

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that several important indicators have emerged in the recent past pointing towards green shoots in the economy.

They include improved global sentiment, rising net portfolio investments, rebound in industrial activity, increase in forex reserves and growth in GST collections.

Replying to the debate on the Union Budget 2020-21 in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said the size of Indian economy increased from two trillion dollars in 2014-15 to 2.9 trillion dollars in 2019-20.

"Are there green shoots? It is a pertinent question. There are seven important indicators that show green shoots," she said.

The minister said that global sentiment was in favour of India and the country received foreign direct investments of 24.4 billion dollars from April to November 2019 compared to 21.2 billion dollars in the corresponding period of previous year.

She said the National Infrastructure Pipeline announced recently will further boost foreign investment in the country.

Sitharaman said the industrial activity is rebounding and the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose by 1.8 per cent in November compared to a contraction in the previous two months.

She said the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) too improved steadily from 51.2 per cent in November to 52.7 per cent in December and to 55.3 per cent in January this year.

The minister said that foreign exchange reserves have grown from 413 billion dollars at the end of March 2019 to over 456 billion dollars in January this year.

Gross GST collections in January totalled Rs 110,828 crore, said Sitharaman adding the GST revenue crossed Rs 1 lakh crore six times between April 2019 and January this year.

The Finance Minister said the GST collections were nine per cent more compared to December last year and 12 per cent more compared to January last year.

"We are on a positive growth trajectory." The minister said the secondary market continues to be upbeat and the BSE Sensex had seen a rise.

A total of 98 members took part in the debate. The Union Budget was presented on February 1.

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