Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Thursday said India needs to focus on three areas -infrastructure, power and exports -- to stimulate GDP growth, which has been hit by factors like demonetisation. “We should not be so pessimistic and say that good times are over but we should be worried...Growth had started falling from quarter which ended September last year,” he said at an event to launch his book ‘I do What I do’.
Subsequently, he said, demonetisation has had more substantial effect over the next few quarters. For the quarter ended June, India's GDP growth slumped to a three-year low of 5.7 per cent -- lagging China for the second straight quarter -as manufacturing slowed ahead of the GST launch amid the lingering effect of demonetisation.
China clocked 6.9% growth in January-March as well as April-June quarters. Advocating three areas for stimulating growth, Rajan said, “let’s ensure the infrastructure projects actually get completed. That’s a lever that the government can push harder if there are impediments.”