Dismissing US President Donald Trump’s “dead economy” jibe, 16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Friday said the Indian economy is growing at 7 per cent, and more than that in dollar terms.Panagariya was speaking at the Business Today India@100 event.”You don’t grow at 7 per cent plus (if the economy is dead), and actually in dollar terms we are growing at more than 7 per cent.
What did the finance commissioner say?
I don’t know what the definition (of dead economy) means. May be, dead bodies do move,” he said when asked if India is a dead economy. Asked about India’s trade protectionism, Panagariya said: “There may be protectionist measures… We are substantially open”.
Mounting a sharp attack on India, Trump had remarked that India is a “dead economy”.”I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” Trump had said in a social media post on July 31.
Trump later imposed 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods imported to the US with a brief exemption list.Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had last week asserted in Parliament that India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, contributing almost 16 per cent to the global growth and will soon become the third-largest economy in the world.
Moody’s rating
“In just over a decade, India has rapidly transformed from being one of the Fragile 5 to the fastest-growing major economy in the world. We have risen from the 11th largest economy to one of the top 5 economies, driven by our reforms, the hard work of our farmers, MSMEs and entrepreneurs,” Goyal had said in Parliament on July 31.
Moody’s Ratings on Friday said India’s GDP growth is likely to slow down by about 30 basis points to 6 per cent in the current fiscal if the US implements 50 per cent tariffs from August 27.However, resilient domestic demand and the strength of the services sector will mitigate the strain on India, Moody’s said, adding that India’s response to high US tariffs will ultimately determine the effect on its growth, inflation and external position.On August 6, the US announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on all Indian imports, in addition to an existing 25 per cent duty, taking the total duty to 50 per cent effective August 27.