Asserting that the economy is much better than critics make it out to be, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday his government is “totally committed” to reverse the slowdown in GDP growth in recent quarters.

In his address at the inauguration of the golden jubilee of the Institute of Company Secretaries of Institute (ICSI), Modi claimed his government’s economic management of the past three years was superior to that of the UPA-II government in its last three years.

“Some people can sleep well only if they spread pessimism around. For them, lower growth in a quarter is the biggest news. We need to recognise such people,” Modi said.

Those criticising his government’s economic management, Modi said, seemed fine with institutions when process and data favours their downbeat narrative. But when data is not to their liking, they question the credibility of institutions and processes.

Modi reeled out reams of statistics to establish that several sectors of the economy have recorded double-digit growth after June 2017. “People are buying cars, telephones, two-wheelers, travelling by air... all this is points to good demand for goods and services,” he said.

The buoyancy, he claimed, was not confined to the metros, but extended to rural areas. “Tractor sales post-June 2017 have grown 34 per cent. FMCG product sales in rural areas have increased”, he said.

Acknowledging that GDP growth had slowed in the first quarter to 5.7 per cent, Modi said this development was not the first time growth fallen so low.

“In six years of the previous government, the growth rate was as low at least eight times. In some quarters, the growth rate was a meagre 0.2 per cent or 1.5 per cent.” Worse, the country was then struggling with high inflation and other dismal macro fundamentals, Modi said.

Over the past three years, he said, his government had taken several reform-oriented decisions. “We will take all steps to increase investments and speed up growth,” he said.

Modi reeled out statistics on investment flows in the past three years to stress that the country has done much better under him.

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