External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj countered former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s comment on India’s growth rate by highlighting the recent appreciation of the economy from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

During a press conference in New Delhi, Swaraj said that both the IMF and World Bank have given a positive review of the Indian economy under the current government.

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“I’d like to remind Mr. Chidambaram that in UPA’s tenure IMF and World Bank listed Indian economy in the fragile five. It was listed as one the economies that were on decline. Today these two organisations themselves call India the fastest growing economy,” Swaraj was quoted as saying by ANI.

“India’s average GDP growth during Congress’ 10 years was 6.7 per cent, in BJP’s last 3 years it was 7.3 per cent and this year it is 7.6 per cent,” Swaraj said.

Earlier today, Chidambaram had said that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to deliver on its promise of a double-digit growth in the last four years.

He also claimed that the government will not be able to manage the rate in the remaining six months of its term.

“This government promised a double-digit growth rate. They have not achieved that growth rate in any of the four years. And they will not achieve it in the last year also,” he said at a press conference in Jaipur.

Chidambaram’s remarks came a day after official data showed that India’s GDP growth rate declined to 7.1 per cent during the July-September quarter, compared to April-June’s 8.2 per cent.

In a series of tweets he posted earlier, Chidambaram said that the 8.2 per cent growth rate in April-June quarter was on a very low base in the previous year and did not warrant the jubilation for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Going forward, it is likely that Q3 and Q4 will register similar growth rates unless there are unexpected shocks. The new normal for the Indian economy is 7 per cent and 2018-19 will be a normal year,” Chidambaram said.

The new normal for the Indian economy is 7 per cent and 2018-19 will be a normal year.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 30, 2018

The Congress leader said that large companies are going bankrupt and major projects are getting stranded now than ever before.

“More and more accounts turned NPA (non-performing assets) than ever before. More banks have been restrained from lending than ever before. There is a sense of crisis everywhere,” he said in poll-bound Rajasthan.