Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam should resign.Reacting on Nirmala Sitharaman’s claim that Congress was mistaken in saying the NDA government had lost control over the economic situation, former finance minister termed her statement ‘a string of irrelevance’. “Today food inflation touched 10 per cent, factory output shrunk [to] 3.8 per cent, retail inflation has crossed five per cent.”
Chidambaram said that the year is likely to end with less than five per cent GDP growth, which ‘as per old methodology would be around 3-3.5 per cent growth rate’.
Chidambaram also rejected the claim that the economic slowdown was cyclical. “Only two people believe that it [slowdown] was cyclical – one is the finance minister and second, chief economic adviser.” The Congress leader said that economic experts agree that the slowdown is structural and needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Chidambaram said that to fix the two key issues plaguing the economy – demand crisis and credit squeeze – the government first must accept that they have made serious mistakes.
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