The BJP on Thursday claimed the “economy is out of the woods” and showing a V-shaped recovery citing increasing labour force participation, surge in farmers’ income, rising tax collections, growing exports and policy measures for reforms such as 100 per cent FDI in telecom, asset monetisation and institution of the bad bank.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP spokesperson on economic affairs Gopal Krishna Agarwal predicted a double digit growth this year and a stable high single digit growth rate on a sustained basis.
“The Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Holdings, Land and Livestock Holdings of Households of Rural India, 2019, conducted from January-December 2019 shows a 59 per cent surge in farmers’ income, from ₹6,426 per month per household in 2012-13 to ₹10,218 per month per household. The amount of outstanding credit in the lowest land size class (less than 0.25 acre) has come down substantially from ₹31,100 to ₹26,883 per household. The decrease in nominal terms is 14 per cent and adjusting for inflation the decrease is more than 50 per cent,” said Agarwal. Quoting from the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Agarwal said labour participation rate has increased from 36.9 per cent from 2017-18 to 40.1 per cent in 2019-20. He said unemployment rate too has come down from 6.1 per cent in 2017-18 to 4.8 per cent in 2019-20.
Merchandise exports stats
India’s merchandise exports in August 2021 was $33.14 billion, an increase of 45.17 per cent over $22.83 billion in August 2020 and an increase of 27.5 per cent over $25.99 billion in August 2019 (pre-covid).
“In April-August 2021, merchandise exports was $163.67 billion, an increase of 66.92 per cent over April-August 2020 and an increase of 22.93 per cent over April-August 2019,” said the BJP spokesperson.