On track to making India $5 trillion economy: PMO official

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pramod Kumar Mishra on Friday said the government is on track to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of making the country a five trillion dollar economy by 2024.

"Innumerable initiatives are being taken in line with our Prime Minister's vision of a New India! On the economic front in particular, he has set a goal of becoming a five trillion dollar economy by 2024. While this is an ambitious aspiration, we are on track and fully committed to the same," said Mishra.

He was addressing the 30th convocation of Sambalpur University in Sambalpur.

"During the period 2014 to 2019, our annual average GDP growth of 7.5 per cent was the highest since Independence. It was also the highest among the G20 countries," he said.

Mishra said macroeconomic stability during the last five years has been the bedrock on which various reforms have been rolled out.

"We have kept inflation low, fiscal spending disciplined, and current account deficit under control. If we compare the two periods 2009-14 and 2014-19, inflation has decreased from 10.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent, fiscal deficit from 5.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent of GDP, and current account deficit from 3.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent of GDP," said the top official.

He said several fundamental, path-breaking reforms have been undertaken.

Introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2016 was a landmark step towards cleaning up and strengthening the financial system of the country, he added.

Implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in 2017 also stands out as a critical measure for unifying India economically as one common market, he added.

With India witnessing a slowdown in GDP, he said it is important to understand the various factors feeding into the same, especially cyclical ones.

"There is a slowdown in global growth of output. Intensive efforts to bring about transparency, prevent leakages and improve governance would have also caused some transitory disruptions. The strong corrective action of the past five years, of emphasising on rule of law and formalisation of the economy, are bound to have a short-term drag effect," said Mishra.

"Nevertheless, the government is alert and active. A number of measures have been taken to reform and rejuvenate the financial sector and the real economy," he said.

He said India is set to grow at a much faster pace in the coming months and years.-IANS