The Myth of the Fastest Growing Economy
While addressing a post-Budget interaction with industry body FICCI, the Finance Minister Sitharaman said , India’s economic recovery is going to place it as the fastest growing economy amongst others. It’s time now for us as Team India to rise. We are at such a juncture where the revival of the economy is very clear…this recovery is therefore going to place India as the fastest growing economy among the larger economies and that would continue even in the next fiscal. This talk of India being the fastest growing economy in the world is what we hear all the time from the Indian politicians, of whichever party is in power, media pundits, and other state supporters. But how significant is this claim? Does it really matter for an average Indian if his country’s economy is the fastest growing in the world? Let us examine these questions below. Figure 1: Top 10 Countries by GDP Economic growth number per se doesn’t say much about the standard of living of the people in an e...