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Assessing measures to be taken on the economic slowdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday said her officials are in discussions with their counterparts in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and once the talks are over, the government will decide what remedial steps should be taken and announce the same, PTI reported.
“Discussions are going on about what steps should be taken and we will announce them when we are ready,” Sitharaman told the media in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
When asked about a revival roadmap that the Finance Ministry is planning to unveil, she said: “Since Monday, I have met five different groups representing banks and financial institutions, SMEs, industries and automobiles and listened to their problems. We are analysing what steps should be taken now.”
However, she refused to say if the government is planning to come out with a stimulus package to arrest the deepening slowdown, or ruled the possibility of one either. “I have not talked about any stimulus package, and whatever appearing in a section of the media is not given by me,” she said.
Sitharaman met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and is learnt to have reviewed the state of the economy with her and top officials of the Ministry to assess measures being planned to tackle the slowdown.
“Yesterday (Thursday) we had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the economy,” the minister added.
There are indications that the slump in investment activity could be prolonged as a majority of manufacturing companies remained pessimistic about the near future. There has been nearly a 30 per cent drop in capital expenditure by the government in the June 2019 quarter, while consumer demand has witnessed a dip too.
