India fastest growing economy under PM Narendra Modi, says BJP

New Delhi: Rejecting Congress' charge that the economy is not doing well, the BJP Monday said India has become the fastest growing major economy under the leadership of Narendra Modi and the current account deficit will be eliminated in the next few months.

India has evolved as an oasis of economic growth stability and opportunity in the world under Modi government from one of the most fragile economies during the Congress regime, senior BJP leader and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said here.

Addressing media at the BJP headquarter soon after Congress briefing on the state of economy, Goyal said it is in strong hands and the Modi government has done historic work in strengthening all the macroeconomic parameters.

Citing some of the indicators, he said consumer inflation fell in December 2016 to 3.41 per cent, the lowest since November 2014.

Besides, there is rise in FDI inflow, forex reserve, and GDP growth, he said, adding fiscal deficit and current account deficit (CAD) is consistently falling.

The CAD has declined to 0.3 per cent of the GDP and it is expected that it will come down to zero in the next 3-4 months, he said.

To deal with the menace of corruption, Goyal said the government has taken several initiatives including demonetisation, setting up of Special Investigative Team on black money and tax treaties with Mauritius, Cyprus and Singapore.

Taking on the Congress, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the party is trying to compare their ten years of performance with two-and-a-half years of NDA government.

"It's not based on hard data or research, its based on their own wish-list, their own assumptions and broadly casting aspersion on what government is going to do tomorrow," she said.

Government will present tomorrow in Parliament the Economic Survey for 2016-17 which gives broad picture of the state of the economy and the way forward.

Sitharaman said the objective to hold the press conference by the Congress is to deflect the attention from Vijaya Mallya scandal.

The party quoted from purported letters written by businessman Mallya to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he sought his intervention and subsequent to which his now-defunct company received loans.

Taking on former Finance Minister P Chidambaram of absolving himself of Mallya allegation saying he was not holding the office in 2009, Sitharaman said UPA is duty bound to answer.

"He was not there then who was...UPA is duty bound to answer," she said.

On the Congress claim for putting up framework for detecting suspicious transactions, she said but how did they fail to detect suspicious huge transaction in case of 2G case.

Brushing asides claims of Congress that exports are declining, she said economy is definitely going on fine and outward shipment in December has seen an increase of 7.8 per cent in rupee terms.

Asked if the Budget session is going to be stormy, she said "stormy we don't mind we will answer the question we will engage in debate."