Indian economy compared to other developed economies, is much better, says FM Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, said on Tuesday, that the Indian economy is in a much better position than many other developed economies.

“The Indian economy, compared to the situation prevailing in many of our peer groups & in many of developed economies, is definitely much better,” the Finance Minister said in Rajya Sabha.

Sitharaman highlighted that the government has adopted a targeted approach, based on ground-level inputs, to tackle retail inflation which is ruling at around 7 per cent.

The minister while replying to a price rise debate in the Rajya Sabha stressed that India’s macroeconomic fundamentals are stronger than many other countries.

However, the minister also acknowledged that global factors are impacting the economy, and said “these are realities”.

The finance minister said that both the government and the Reserve Bank are taking steps to bring down inflation below 7 per cent and further under 6 per cent.

The government has tasked the RBI to ensure that the consumer price index (CPI) based inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

Sitharaman also countered opposition charges that the central government was only working for Ambanis and Adanis, and not the poor.

Such arguments, she said only politicise an important debate like the one on price rise.