No cause for ruling's party's jubilation over growth rate, there's crisis everywhere: Chidambaram

Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said that the ruling party's jubilation over the GDP growth data is unwarranted. 

The senior Congress leader noted that more large companies are bankrupt today than before and many projects are "stranded than ever." "There is a sense of crisis," he stated. 

In a series of tweets, the former finance minister said that as expected, the GDP growth in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2018-19 was a good one per cent lower than in the April-June quarter (Q1).

"Q1 number was on a very low base in the previous year. It did not signify a bump in growth and did not warrant the jubilation of the BJP three months ago," he said.

"More large companies are bankrupt today than ever before, more projects stranded than ever before, more accounts turned NPA than ever before, more banks have been restrained from lending than ever before. There is a sense of crisis everywhere," Chidambaram noted. 

"The new normal for the Indian economy is 7 per cent and 2018-19 will be a normal year," he said.

India's economy grew at 7.1 per cent in the July-September quarter, the lowest in three quarters, but still remained ahead of China to retain the tag of the world's fastest-growing major economy, news agency PTI reported. 

India's $2.6 trillion economy, Asia's third largest, grew 6.3 per cent in the July-September quarter of 2017, the data released by the statistics ministry showed.

India had recorded 7.9 per cent mark in the fourth quarter FY16, this time, however, it was lower than expected.