Prime Minister To Meet Economists, Sectoral Experts On June 22

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with leading economists and experts on Saturday to deliberate on economic policy roadmap for promoting growth and employment generation.

The meeting, being organised by government think tank NITI Aayog, will be attended by various ministers, NITI Aayog functionaries, leading economists, sectoral experts and industrialists, sources said.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of recent Central Statistics Office data showing that the economic growth slowed to a five-year low of 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, pushing India behind China, due to poor showing by agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

The CSO data had also shown that joblessness was at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent in 2017-18. It also revealed that the annual Gross Domestic Product for fiscal 2018-19 (at 2011-12 prices) was at a five-year low of 6.8 percent.

The GDP growth was 7.2 percent in 2017-18. The meeting also assumes significance as it comes ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget on July 5 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.