With the IMF cutting down India's growth forecast by 1 per cent citing Centre's demonetisation move, the Congress party today took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi likening the currency ban with Pakistan’s unsuccessful attempts at hurting India’s pace of development.
"In one blow PM Modi has done what Pakistan tried to do, unsuccessfully, for decades — push India backwards!” the Congress said through its official Twitter handle.
IMF has cut India’s economic growth rate forecast by one percentage point to 6.6 per cent for 2016-17 — from its earlier estimate of 7.6 per cent — because of the effect of demonetisation on consumption and payments.
In another tweet, Congress claimed that IMF forecast was in line with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s prediction that demonetisation would lead to a financial disaster in the country. “Dr. Manmohan Singh warned against the drop in the beginning of demonetization. The ego of an individual has pushed billion ppl into trouble!”
If the projection holds true, the fastest growing large economy in the world would be China, forecast to grow 6.7 per cent in 2016.
The low forecast has been attributed to the “temporary negative consumption shock” and “payment disruptions” due to demonetisation.
Last week, the World Bank lowered its India growth projection by 0.6 percentage points to seven per cent for the year. But, this was only a shade lower than the Advanced Estimates of 7.1 per cent. IMF estimates are more in line with those of other agencies.
