Stop boasting & explain growth: Chidambaram tells Center

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram questioned the Union government's proclaimed GDP growth, asking them to stop "vain boasts" and suggested to release a reasoned paper on why it expects real GDP growth to pass 8 per cent in 2032-23, PTI reported.

Chidambaram also asked the government's explanation for the shrinking workforce and the increasing unemployment registered by employment exchanges. He asked that if nominal GDP growth is 11.1 per cent and real GDP growth will be 8 per cent, will the government say that inflation will be about only 3 per cent.

Further, he said the government should explain why it is pursuing rejected policies like self-sufficiency (protectionism) and deglobalisation". He asked whether the policies implemented by developed countries will work for a developing country with low per capita income like India.

Through Twitter, the former Finance Minister praised the global investor Ruchir Sharma's op-ed in a newspaper on Monday. He said that reading the opinion piece must be made compulsory for the ministers in the BJP government as well as their economic advisors.

Congress has been continuously attacking the Modi government for its lazy handling of the economy and kept demanding to provide the youth jobs.