Arun Jaitley says India’s growth story under Modi best since independence; what he says on ‘where are jobs?’

Even as the Modi government is being criticised for over credibility of economic data and lacklustre employment generation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rebutted the claims saying India’s economic growth story has been best since independence in the last 5 years.

“The 2014-19 consolidated growth rate at an average of the GDP at 7.3 percent is the highest 5-year growth rate that any government has achieved in india till today”, he said in a video posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

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The five-year GDP growth has been the fastest amongst the major economies of the world during the period, he added.

Adding, he said that the high rate of inflation that the Modi government inherited in 2014 has been largely brought under control and the fiscal deficit has also fell. The external debt as a percentage of the GDP is on the decline and there is a significant improvement in the current account balance of the government, he noted.

In a separate video, Finance Minister also came down heavily on 108 economists who released a letter recently raising concerns over the quality of statistical data. Arun Jaitley said that the majority of these economists are ‘compulsive contrarians’.

“..70% of those (108 economists) are compulsive contrarians, critics of the government who have signed multiple memorandums against this government in the last five years”, he had said.

OnMonday, 131 Chartered Accountants had also came forth to counter the allegations over political interference influencing data quality.

On concerns over employment generation, Arun Jaitley said that at a time when the incumbent government is working at a large scale on building infrastructure across the country, the campaign claiming that no jobs are being created is incorrect.

It would ‘preposterous’ to contend that the fastest growing economy in the world is actually losing jobs and that even the 17.1 crore Mudra loans created no jobs through self-employment, he added.

The letter released by the economists came against the backdrop of running controversy over revised GDP data and withholding of employment data by the NSSO.