‘Concerned’ PM Modi to meet Arun Jaitley on Tuesday to discuss economic slowdown
Concerned about slowdown in the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other top officials tomorrow to take stock of the situation and discuss remedial measures to bolster growth.
Modi will threadbare analyse the economic situation with Jaitley and secretaries of the finance ministry and explore options to stimulate the economy, official sources said.
The meeting comes days after government data showed GDP growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal slumping to a three-year low of 5.7%, from 7.9% in April- June of 2016 and 6.1% of January-March.
GDP growth has declined steadily for six straight quarters and the Economic Survey-II predicts that the economy may not be able to achieve the targeted growth rate of 7.5 per cent owing to deflationary pressures.
Exports are facing strong headwinds and the industrial growth is the lowest in five years.
The current account deficit (CAD) in the April-June quarter has risen to 2.4% of GDP, or USD 14.3 billion, mainly on account of increased trade gap.
CAD, the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, was 0.1% (USD 0.4 billion) in the June quarter of last fiscal.
The figure compares with 0.6% (USD 3.4 billion) for January-March 2017.
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