Congress cites RBI data to question govt's economy management

Congress on Wednesday said the Reserve Bank of India's latest bulletin shows worrisome trends about the state of the economy, and pointed a finger at the Centre for it. AICC communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh said RBI's October bulletin, compared to the previous one, showed the continuing or worsening of a range of negative indicators, including a 47-year low in the savings growth rate, a stagnation of domestic credit to the private sector, and a flat labour-force participation rate.

"A major reason for the low net savings growth is that there was a huge spike in household liabilities. Despite the finance ministry's misleading claim that this spike is due to home and vehicle loans, the September bulletin had clearly shown there was a 23% spike in gold loans and a 29% spike in personal loans," Ramesh said. He charged the Centre with failure to control inflation and maintain fiscal deficit target.