Amidst criticism by the Congress party that India's debt has tripled since Narendra Modi came to power, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India would have been the world's most indebted country had the government listened to the Opposition's advice to print more money in the wake of the 2020 pandemic of Covid-19.
"Those who are alleging that India's debt has increased to high levels are the same people who advised the government to print money and distribute it during the pandemic," the FM said, adding that India is the fastest-growing economy in the world today because the NDA government didn't listen to the Opposition's advice.
Agreeing with the FM, economic analyst Diva Jain wrote that this is actually the first time in 20 years that the government debt-to-GDP ratio is trending downwards despite low inflation. Columnist Somnath Mukherjee wrote, "The Central government's debt/GDP ratio has been flat despite low inflation (low inflation depresses nominal GDP.) What has gone up (since Modi came to power) is total government liabilities (centre and state debts plus guarantees). India's total debt/GDP ratio is remarkably stable by global standards."
