PM to take stock of economy at meet with experts today

Against the backdrop of currency crunch post demonetisation and discuss ways to speed up growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday take stock of the economy with experts at NITI Aayog.

The meeting assumes significance as restrictions imposed by the government on currency withdrawal is coming to an end on December 30, which is also the last date for deposit of old currency notes.

Additionally, it also meeting assumes significance in view of various multilateral agencies and RBI lowering growth forecast for the current fiscal. RBI has reduced the economic growth forecast to 7.1 percent from 7.6 percent in its monetary policy review earlier this month.

Multilateral funding body Asian Development Bank (ADB) too slashed growth projection to 7 percent for the current fiscal, from its earlier 7.4 percent due to the impact of demonetisation on economic activities.

Indian economy expanded by 7.1 percent and 7.3 percent in first and second quarters of 2016-17.

Economists, including former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, have raised concerns that demonetisation will disrupt the economy and pull down GDP growth rate for this fiscal by up to two percentage points.

The official said the Prime Minister will also take stock of various initiatives of NITI Aayog to promote digital economy like Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana to incentivise digital payments.

The estimated expenditure on the first phase of the schemes (up to April 14, 2017) is likely to be Rs 340 crore.

With PTI Inputs