Low inflation helped the middle class, says CEA Krishnamurthy Subramanian

Growth in domestic consumption has shown resilience, which makes India more immune to some of the shocks that may have been experienced globally.

Stating that GST had acted as a game-changer for India to become a single market, chief economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Friday said the time had come to take disruptive ideas of all kinds in the right sense, as all of them were aimed at the overall development of the country.

According to him, there were many challenges, including headwinds to exports and the credit growth that was slow for a pretty long period. The 7.5% average growth that the country recorded over the last five years happened despite credit growth being very slow, almost grinding to a halt. Growth in domestic consumption has shown resilience, which makes India more immune to some of the shocks that may have been experienced globally.

Also read| Save us from your income tax officers, they are spreading fear: CAs write to PM Modi, FM Jaitley

The inflation has been well under control in the tenure of the current government. “If 10% inflation rate had prevailed, many of the essential commodities would have been at least 30-35% costlier compared to what they are. That matters very much for the middle class and the poor,” he said. Monetary policy framework has been an important contributor to the lowering of the inflation.

Among the path-breaking reforms, while there might be some difficulties in GST, one should be tolerant that achieving perfection in policy changes immediately in a large country like India would not be possible. IBC, which is another pathbreaking structural reform, has made borrowers feel the heat that if they do not repay, the control on their firm could be taken away from them and this has improved the debt repayment situation, he said.