Union Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted that it was a very difficult task to bring back the manufacturing in the country as the economic situation was very bad when PM Modi took charge in 2014.
The minister stated this during a press address on the sidelines of his 4-day US visit which concluded on Thursday.
He also added that India was in the fragile five economies when PM Modi took charge and there were also other problems like low growth in forex and high interest rates.
“The situation in which PM Modi took charge in 2014, we were a fragile five economy. The world had written us off. Inflation was high, interest rates were high. Foreign exchange reserves and growth were low. Investor sentiment was poor. The stock markets were down. We were considered amongst the weakest currencies and economies in the world. Despite those constraints, with corruption scandals coming out literally from the closet every week before 2014, it was a painstaking task to bring back manufacturing into the country,” the Minister said.
Highlighting the journey of Indian economy from 2014, the minister added, “Look at where we have reached from 2014 to 2024. We have taken growth up to 8 per cent from 4 per cent. Our inflation is down from 9 per cent to under four percent. Our average inflation for 10 years was lowest in India’s history. Our foreign exchange reserves are now at nearly 700 billion dollars”.
The minister also noted that the manufacturing sector of the country has also improved, he said “Manufacturing also kept pace and has almost doubled in the last ten years”.