Significantly below par: Congress on 6.5 pc GDP for 2024-25

The Congress Friday said India's estimated 6.5 per cent GDP growth rate for FY 2024-25 is "significantly below par", a sharp deceleration from that witnessed in 2022-23, which was far removed from the high recorded during the Manmohan Singh government.

Simultaneously, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India was "the fastest growing economy for fourth consecutive year" aided by manufacturing, even as government data showed that the manufacturing sector had significantly slowed down economic growth.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP and general-secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released its provisional estimates for GDP growth in FY 2024-2025.

Speaking at the Lakshmipat Singhania-IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award, Sitharaman on Friday said India is sustaining its GDP growth momentum as the fastest-growing economy for the fourth year in a row, aided by manufacturing by small, medium and large industries, services and farm sector.

She said India's manufacturing sector has been "good" during the March quarter of 2024-25, which helped clock a GDP growth of 6.5 per cent for the full fiscal.

"India is sustaining this growth as the fastest growing economy now for the fourth year continuously without a break, thanks to the work of small and medium, large industries, which are coming in and making sure our manufacturing capacity, our service capacity are all intact. Agriculture has also sustained us even during the Covid and subsequently," Sitharaman said.

In a post on X, however, Ramesh pointed out, "Annual real GDP growth is 6.5 per cent — a sharp deceleration from the growth witnessed even in FY22-23 and far removed from the high growth record of 7.7 per cent annually during Dr Manmohan Singh's decade as PM.

The National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released its provisional estimates for GDP growth in FY 2024-2025. Annual real GDP growth is 6.5% - a sharp deceleration from the growth witnessed even in FY22-23, and far…

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 30, 2025

"The fine print raises more concerns. The Jan-Mar 2025 manufacturing sector growth was 4.8 per cent versus 11.3 per cent a year ago. Rather than grappling with this reality, the government has once again resorted to spin-doctoring, claiming that 'manufacturing systemic reforms will show results over time'."

In a jibe at the government, Ramesh said that 11 years after Make in India was launched, "we are being told today to wait longer for it to show even initial results".

He said India's demographic dividend and favourable international geopolitics offer a historic opportunity to embark on a high-growth sprint over the next two to three decades.

"In these circumstances, 6.5 per cent growth is a significantly below-par performance unlike (sic) to be improved given tepid consumption growth, stagnant real wages, sharpening inequalities, and continued lukewarm private investment rates within the country," the Congress leader said.

India's economic growth slowed to 7.4 per cent in the January-March period, and pulled down the annual growth rate for 2024-25 to a four-year low of 6.5 per cent, mainly owing to the manufacturing sector, official data showed on Friday.

The size of the Indian economy rose to Rs 330.68 lakh crore or about USD 3.9 trillion and set the stage for achieving the USD 5 trillion target in the next few years. In the previous 2023-24 fiscal year, the economy grew 9.2 per cent.

The economic expansion was recorded at 7.4 per cent during January-March 2025, while it was 6.4 per cent in October-December 2024, 5.6 per cent in July-September 2024, and 6.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of the last financial year, according to economic estimates released by the NSO.

The NSO, in its second advance estimate released in February, projected the GDP growth for 2024-25 at 6.5 per cent.

With PTI inputs