Budget 2019: India to become $3 trillion economy this year, says Sitharaman

Budget 2019: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the BJP-led government has added one trillion dollars to the Indian economy in five years whereas it took 55 years to reach that number earlier.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unveiled the budget for 2019-20 on Friday, seeking to reverse weakening growth and investment. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the annual budget to Parliament, said the India is set to become a $3 trillion economy in the current fiscal year.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2019-20 in Lok Sabha on Friday, July 5, 2019.(ANI / Twitter)

“We need to invest heavily in infrastructure, digital economy, job creation,” she said, adding that “it took us over 55 years to reach $1 trillion dollar economy. But when the hearts are filled with hope, trust and aspiration, we in just 5 years, added $1 trillion.”

Nirmala Sitharaman said that the first term of Narendra Modi-led NDA government “stood out as a performing government”.

“Between 2014-2019 he (Modi) provided a rejuvenated centre-state dynamics, cooperative federalism, GST council and strident commitment to fiscal discipline,” the Finance Minister said.

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PM Modi has set a target of growing India into a $5 trillion economy by 2024/2025 from $2.7 trillion that a government report on Thursday said will be done on the back of higher investment, savings and exports in the way China’s growth was propelled.

Asia’s third largest economy grew at a much slower-than-expected 5.8% in the last quarter, the weakest growth in five years and far below the pace needed to generate jobs for the millions of young Indian’s entering the labour market each month. And the unemployment rate rose to a multi-year-high of 6.1% in the 2017/18 fiscal year.