Union Finance Minister on Tuesday exuded hope in Parliament that there are as many as seven important indicators which show that “green shoots” are now visible in the economy and days of trouble are perhaps over. But the data released by National Statistical Office the very next day will be quite contrasting and dash hopes, at least for now. Economists are counting it as a good indicator that time hasn’t come really to say that days of limping are over for the Indian economy which means the feeling of hopelessness are to stay on for an indefinite period of time, just as it had been since the last 18 months or so.
It’s now a well-established fact that ailment of the economy has reached a chronic stage which has also been proven repeatedly by the inefficacies of most of the measures that have been kicked-off so far, according to various economic watchdogs. And Wednesday’s NSO data which speak of the dual discomfort of high retail inflation and industrial output contraction is perhaps a further endorsement of the above actuality. That the first month of 2020 has burnt pockets of the common people deep is apparent from the retail inflation figure of 7.59% which has been the highest in preceding 68-month period and soaring food prices have been its principal contributor. A little comparison will go a long way to show how the man on the street has been progressively bearing the brunt. While in December 2019 retail inflation was 7.35 %, an year earlier in January 2019 it was 1.97 % and even if fluctuation of these rates are quite common in the  economy, the pinch has been harder this time because the overall slowdown is deep, coupled with a marching unemployment which has robbed even the basic minimum purchasing power. Meanwhile, factory output, which also signifies industrial growth and measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has contracted by 0.3% in December on an annual basis and when taken into account the fact that electricity generation has also fallen by 0.1 %, it actually means that worries due to fall in overall demand for consumption will persist for longer period than initially expected.
It’s just the beginning of the year and the economic facts or figures that had arrived so far has been really disturbing and literally, is a carry forward of the tales of woes which marked the preceding year which had been ‘bombarded’ by the likes of 45-year high unemployment, 6-year low GDP growth and various other intermittent ones.
Although it’s not sure how many of such will be arriving in the remaining months, one can only hope, the adage ‘morning shows the day’ proves wrong.  

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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