FM sees signs of the economy being green shoots

Addressing the Council of States Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday claimed that the economy is on its track to recovery. Some of the green shoots identified by the minister include rising foreign direct investments (FDIs); foreign portfolio investments (FPIs); rebound in industrial activity; rising Purchasing Managers’ Index; increasing forex reserves; and robust collections of the goods and services tax and a rising Sensex.

Thus, during April-November period the net FDI inflows rose from US$ 21.2 billion last year to US$ 24.4 billion, while the net FPI inflows jumped to US$ 12.6 billion from US$ 8.7 billion. At the same time, the factory output grew at a pace of 1.8% in Nov’19 against a contraction of 3.4% in Oct’19. Similarly, the manufacturing PMI also hit a near eight-year high of 55.3 in Jan’20. The forex reserves jumped from US$ 413 billion by end of March 2019 to US$ 466.69 billion by 24 January 2020; and the between April 2019 and January 2020, gross GST revenue crossed ₹1 trillion six times.