Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has admitted that the Indian economy slowed down in 2016-17, with the gross domestic product declining drastically from 8 percent in 2015-16 to 7.1 percent the next year. He said the slower economic growth reflected lower growth in the industry and the services sectors, due to a number of factors including structural, external, fiscal and monetary factors. He further said that lower rate of global economic growth in 2016, along with a reduction in gross fixed investment to GDP ratio, stressed balance sheets of the corporate sector, lower credit growth in industry sector were some of the reasons for the low growth rate in 2016-17.
The finance minister however claimed that despite the slowdown, as per the IMF, India was the fastest growing major economy in 2016 and second fastest growing major economy in 2017 in the world. He said the government has taken various initiatives to boost the growth of the economy, including giving a fillip to manufacturing, concrete measures for transport and power sectors as well as other urban and rural infrastructure, comprehensive reforms in the foreign direct investment policy and special package for textile industry. He added that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was enacted to achieve insolvency resolution in a time bound manner.
Jaitley also said the government had announced various measures in the 2017-18 budget to promote growth in which included a push to infrastructure development by giving infrastructure status to affordable housing, higher allocation to highway construction and focus on coastal connectivity. The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has provided a significant opportunity to improve growth momentum by reducing barriers to trade, business and related economic activities.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: