PM, economists take stock of economy

PM, economists take stock of economy

Context

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, top economists and experts in the country stressed the need for creating new jobs, even as a NITI Aayog task force has found that the statistics on lack of employment may be “overrated”. The data will be released “very soon”, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said

What did the economists suggest?

The economists suggested

• Need to improve credibility of the budget: The government needed to improve the credibility of the budget by sticking to the targets set and making more realistic projections
• Fiscal council: The need for a “fiscal council” that would be in charge of evaluating budget estimates and fiscal targets, which would be answerable to Parliament and not just the Finance Ministry

Backdrop

The meeting follows the Central Statistics Office’s forecast that GDP growth in the current financial year will slow to a four-year low of 6.5%, from the provisional 7.1% seen in 2016-17, dragged down by deceleration in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

• The Prime Minister suggested that another meeting be held again, two months after the budget

Key discussion sectors

The key sectors for discussion included macro-economy, agriculture and rural development, employment, health and education, manufacturing and exports.