We inherited derailed passenger train, will soon turn it into bullet train: Jayant Sinha on economy

Mumbai: Drawing parallels between the economy and a train, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Saturday said the Modi government inherited a derailed passenger train, but has already converted it into a 'Rajdhani' and would soon make it a bullet train.

He also expressed confidence that the Indian economy would continue to grow at 7-9 per cent and double in size to US $4-5 trillion in a decade.

"The economy that the current government inherited had toxic macro-economic parametres and the present government has tried to change those parametres.

"The train of development which we inherited was a derailed one and we have put it back on track. We have made the passenger train into a Rajdhani train and in some time, we will convert it into a bullet train," the minister said.

"The Indian economy today is a $2 trillion economy. All the actions that our government is taking will enable us to be able to get on the path of sustainable growth of 7 per cent, 8 per cent or 9 per cent," Mr Sinha said at an event in Mumbai.

"And if we are able to sustain this growth rate... for a decade... our $2 trillion economy will become $4 trillion or $5 trillion economy, making us the third largest economy in absolute terms," he said.

The US economy is estimated to be worth $17 trillion economy while the Chinese economy has a size of about $10 trillion.

In terms of Purchasing Power Parity at $4-5 trillion, India will be $17-18 trillion economy, he added.

"Because we got fiscal deficit under control, because we got inflation under control, RBI has now got the monetary space to be able to cut rates which means that we are going to get the benefits of the cycle of interest rate coming down," Mr Sinha said at the golden jubilee celebration of All India State Bank Officers' Federation.

The minister said looking at the present level of inflation, the fiscal deficit, the current account deficit, the GDP growth, the observers around the world, whether OECD, the World Bank or IMF, are saying this is the economy which is in good health.