Economy in slowdown; people reeling under 'no jobs, raging inflation': Congress

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Union Budget, the Congress on Thursday slammed the government's handling of the economy, asserting that there is a slowdown with “no jobs, raging inflation, stagnating wages and huge income inequality”. Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the economic growth could even fall by up to 2 per cent as compared with the previous year.

He made the remarks at the Congress’ 24, Akbar Road office after releasing the ‘Real State of the Economy 2025’ report prepared by former party MP Rajeev Gowda and his team.

"The economy is in a slowdown... that cannot be denied at all, however, much the government may try to do that the economy is in a slowdown and it may fall up to two per cent of the previous year's growth," he said at the press conference. “There are no jobs. Youth unemployment is close to 40 per cent. There are no jobs despite the PM handing out letters to people from time to time. That is just filling of vacant posts and does not involve creation of new jobs,” he said. Chidambaram said wages have stagnated for the last four-five years.

Inflation has been raging since 2-3 years: P Chidambaram

“Inflation is raging, with food, education and healthcare inflation is in double digits. Inflation has been raging since 2-3 years,” the Congress leader said.

Noting that there is huge income inequality, Chidambaram said he does concede that the top 20-30 per cent may be better off but the rest of the 70 percent, the bottom half, is living on Rs 100-150 a day. “There is huge inequality and that gap between the rich and the poor is growing. The government has done nothing to deal with it,” he said. Chidambaram said many of the facts mentioned in the report released by the party are conveniently buried by the Union government. “

Therefore, Prof Rajeev Gowda's team decided to present the report on the real state of the economy, even as the unreal state of the economy is put forward by the government everyday, every hour,” he said. The Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.