'No chance of recession, hoping for double-digit growth,' says FM Sitharaman as India retains fastest growing economy tag

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that there was zero percent chance of recession and that she was hoping for double digit growth in the GDP in this financial year. She said the country was on a strong wicket when compared to others. India clocked 13.5 per cent growth in the first quarter of current financial year, that makes it the fastest growing large economy in the world.

The country had grown over 20 per cent in the same period last year. While some argued that the growth in the first quarter was largely due to a low base, the finance minister said that it was still higher when compared to other countries. "Compared to the economies we are talking about, we are on a sound wicket. We are literally the fastest growing economy," she said.

Speaking to reporters, Sitharaman cited some reports and said the country had zero per cent chance of slipping into recession. “I hope for (double-digit growth). We will work for it... So, if you're not on the verge of recession, it also gives me the confidence that if you are constantly responsive in terms of the sections which need handholding, in terms of the boost that we have to give to the economy," she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Sitharaman also reminded that the economies which were far more developed than India and comparable with the country, are on the verge of recession.

Developed countries like the US and UK are facing severe headwinds with higher-than expected inflation due to supply shocks on account of Covid and Russia-Ukraine war. In July this year, the IMF said that the global economy is facing an increasingly gloomy and uncertain outlook. “Higher-than-expected inflation, especially in the United States and major European economies, is triggering a tightening of global financial conditions,” it said.  “The world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession, only two years after the last one,” the IMF said.