Growth Pangs

- N Madhavan

THE NUMBERS CAME AS A SURPRISE. The economy, India’s chief statistician said, grew by just 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017-18—the sixth quarter of decline as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), and the slowest pace of growth since the Modi government came to power in 2014. Even the usually unflappable Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley had to admit that the numbers “are certainly a matter of concern”. Opposition parties blamed demonetisation, and it did not help that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, only days earlier, released data showing that 99 percent of the scrapped currency was back in the banking system.