By Shreya Maskara
With economic growth figures showing a positive outlook, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to be confident the country will be able to sustain the growth. Last week, forex reserves also declined by $2.23 billion, while tax collection in the northeast was at a record high for the last financial year. Here’s everything about the economy you may have missed last week.
India’s growth expands to 7.7% in fourth quarter
Official data released by the Central Statistics Office last week showcased that India’s GDP increase at 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, as compared to 6.1% for the same quarter for the last financial year. “The economy is certainly recovering. But if one breaks the numbers a little, a lot of it is essentially being driven by public expenditure,” Pronab Sen, former chief statistician of India, said. “That’s a good thing because we needed a certain bit of priming.”
Expressing confidence in the rate of economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while delivering a keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, “We will sustain a growth of 7.5 to 8 per cent per year.”
India’s forex reserves declined by $2.23 billion
For the week ending May 25, India’s forex reserves declined by $2.23 billion to $412.83, the Reserve Bank announced. Total reserves also declined in the previous week from $415.05 billion by $2.64 billion. Prior to this, the reserves had touched a record-breaking high of $426.028 billion in the week of April 13. Last year, the reserves passed the $400 billion mark for the first time, however, since then the figures have been fluctuating.
Increased tax collection in Northeast for 2018 financial year
For 2017-18, the Northeast region of India has recorded an 18% growth in direct tax collections, said Union Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla. ”The net tax collection was Rs 7,097 crore from the North East in 2017-18. This was a growth of 18.3 per cent over the previous year,” Shukla said at a press conference. He also added that the Income Tax Department has brought over 1.89 lakh more people under the tax net, with the total tax payers in North East currently at around 7.38 lakh persons.
Shreya Maskara is a senior copy editor at Qrius
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