Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the economy is not in trouble and green shoots are visible with the country moving towards a USD 5 trillion economy.
Listing initiatives taken by the government, she said, increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), rise in factory output and over Rs 1 lakh crore GST collection in the past three months are indications of green shoots in the economy.
"There are seven important indicators which show that there are green shoots in the economy...Economy is not in trouble," she said while replying to a debate on the Union Budget in Lok Sabha.
Referring to visible indicators of green shoots, the Finance Minister said the forex reserve is at an all time high and the stock market is upbeat.
"Global sentiment is in favour of India. Foreign investors continue to show confidence in India and that is why the country has attracted a net FDI of USD 24.4 billion in April-November 2019-20 as against USD 21.2 billion in the same period the previous year," she said.
Net Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) in April-November 2019-20 was positive at USD 12.6 billion as against USD 8.7 billion in the same period last fiscal.
She further said the gross GST (Goods and Services Tax) revenue collected in January 2020 grew at 12 per cent while in November 2019, it was 6 per cent.
"So there is a steady growth and therefore negative growth, which it showed in September and October, has been corrected and we are on a positive growth trajectory and this will obviously bring in greater and newer investments to the economy and it will also reduce the business cost," she added
There are seven green shoots based on which the economy now very clearly moving forward, she added.