India Can Be World's Third Largest Economy In A Decade, Says Jayant Sinha

BENGALURU: Drawing parallels between the economy and a train, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the Modi government inherited a derailed passenger train, but has already converted it into a 'Rajdhani' and would soon make it a bullet train.

He also expressed confidence that the Indian economy would continue to grow at 7-9 percent and double in size to U.S. $4-5 trillion in a decade. "The economy that the current government inherited had toxic macro-economic parameters and the present government has tried to change those parameters.”The train of development which we inherited was a derailed one and we have put it back on track. We have made the passenger train into a Rajdhani train and in some time, we will convert it into a bullet train," the Minister said.

"The Indian economy today is a U.S.$ 2 trillion economy. All the actions that our government is taking will enable us to be able to get on the path of sustainable growth of 7 percent, 8 percent or 9 percent," Sinha said at an event in Mumbai. "And if we are able to sustain this growth rate... for a decade... our U.S. $ 2 trillion economy will become US $ 4 trillion or 5 trillion economy, making us the third largest economy in absolute terms," he said.

The U.S. economy is estimated to be worth US $ 17 trillion economy while the Chinese economy has a size of about U.S.$ 10 trillion. In terms of Purchasing Power Parity at U.S. $4-5 trillion, India will be U.S. $ 17-18 trillion economy, he added.

"Because we got fiscal deficit under control, because we got inflation under control, RBI has now got the monetary space to be able to cut rates which means that we are going to get the benefits of the cycle of interest rate coming down," Sinha said at the golden jubilee celebration of All India State Bank Officers' Federation.

Sinha said looking at the present level of inflation, the fiscal deficit, the current account deficit, the GDP growth, the observers around the world, whether OECD, the World Bank or IMF, are saying this is the economy which is in good health.
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