Amid slowdown worries, Sitharaman to meet representatives of various sectors this week
According to the Central Statistics Office, GDP growth during 2018-19 stood at 6.8 percent, lower than 7.2 percent in the previous financial year.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said she will meet representatives of various sectors and "fairly quickly" come out with steps to help them.
Sitharaman, who on Monday met the heads of public and private sector banks, is scheduled to hold similar meetings during the week with representatives of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and automobile sectors, industry chambers, markets, real estate, and home buyers.
"Essential idea behind these meetings is to hear from them and fairly quickly after that come up with something which will help those sectors, which are giving their views to us," she told reporters in a press conference.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
The minister's statement assumes significance as key indicators pointing are towards a slowdown, and the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have cut India's growth forecast, citing global and domestic headwinds.
"We are getting inputs from various sectors and trying to respond so that confidence of those sectors are being restored," Sitharaman said.
According to the Central Statistics Office, GDP growth during 2018-19 stood at 6.8 percent, lower than 7.2 percent in the previous financial year.
While presenting the first Budget of the Modi government in its second term on July 5, the first full-time woman Finance Minister said India needs to make structural reforms to achieve $5 trillion economy in the next few years.
"From $1.85 trillion in 2014, our economy has reached $2.7 trillion in just five years. Hence, it is well within our capacity to reach $5 trillion in the next few years. We will become a $3 trillion economy in the current year, which is the sixth largest in the world,” she said at the time.
She highlighted the need of investing in infrastructure, digital economy, and job creation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to boost the economy.
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