Under PM Modi, India’s Economy in Recession First-time Ever, Says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country’s economy is in recession for the first time ever. He said this after India’s GDP growth contracted by 7.5 per cent in the July-September quarter. The GDP had contracted by 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter. “Under PM Modi, India’s economy is officially in a recession for the first time ever,” he said on Twitter.

“More importantly, 3 crore people are still looking for work under MNREGA. Economy cannot be ordered to grow by diktats. PM needs to first understand this basic idea,” he also said. India’s economy showed a GDP contraction 7.5 per cent in July-September quarter and held out hopes for further improvement on better consumer demand.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by a record 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal (April 2020 to March 2021) as the coronavirus lockdown pummelled economic activity. The GDP contraction of 7.5 per cent in July-September compares with a growth of 4.4 per cent in the same quarter last year. China’s economy grew by 4.9 per cent in July-September this year, faster than the 3.2 per cent growth in April-June 2020.

Though the contraction in July-September pushed India into its first technical recession, based on records going back to 1996, a sharp recovery held out hopes for the economy turning around before the end of the fiscal year.