Modi government tenure best years of economy: Surjit Bhalla, EAC-PM member

NEW DELHI: Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Surjit Bhalla Tuesday said the four years of the Modi government are the 'best years' of the Indian economy and favoured more key reforms needed to be undertaken.

Bhalla also said although the macroeconomic parameters have shown good performance in the last four years, there are concerns about bad loans, and part of the problem can be attributed to the RBI Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) decision to keep interest rates high.

“If you look at any macro parameters then these (Modi government’s four years) are the best four years of the Indian economy... so without a doubt, the macro performance is better, that is not to say everything is working or everything is fine,” he said.


“We have the NPA crisis that by all account is a lot worse now as a share of GDP or as a share of loans. And there are reasons why that is grown up and I think in my opinion the tight monetary policy that has been followed by the MPC is in some part to blame for the fact that the NPAs have risen,” Bhalla added. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power in May 2014.

On reforms, the eminent economist said the government should consider income transfer instead of higher minimum support price (MSP) and loan waivers.