India has carried out key structural reforms at the right time and it will have positives impact in the coming days, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday. He is currently on a week-long tour to the US.
"When the world was growing at two-and-a-half percent, India was the fastest-growing major economy in the world. That was a time to really fix the roof. You don't have to wait for a downward slide in order to do it," PTI quoted Jaitley as saying.
Boasting BJP reforms like demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the veteran politician said that reforms were carried out keeping in mind their long-term benefits to the country's economy.
Targeting his critics — primarily Congress, Arun Jaitley said that BJP simply did what Congress couldn't do while in power.
"Attacking or ending this black money was never a priority for the Congress. So their concern (about demonetisation) is natural. And GST was a Congress move. But since (the Congress) party is an opportunist party, it is opposing it," Jaitley said.
The positive responses and statements about the Indian economy from the world leaders had "increased the confidence of India," the FM stated in US.
International financial agencies like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have called the slump in recent Indian growth rate "an aberration" and a short-term one, the news agency reported.
"The global economy has also started improving, and that's the mood that I've seen at the IMF-Bank this time— the IMF's own projection for the world economy this year is 3.6 percent and next years is 3.7—percent the global tail winds will also give better impetus to domestic growth," Jaitley explained.
Earlier on Thursday, while speaking at the Harvard University, the Indian FM indicated that the real estate sector might be brought under the ambit of GST.
Jaitley is also scheduled to attend the annual meetings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
