Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur on Monday said that the Indian economy is not in recession, in a written reply to a question posed in the Lok Sabha, PTI reported. Thakur also said that the Indian economy has the fastest average rate of growth from 2014 to 2019 among the G-20 countries.

Thakur said that according to estimates made by the International Monetary Fund, India’s Gross Domestic Product growth rate is likely to be 5.8% in 2020-’21, and 6.5% in 2021-’22, higher than that of China’s.

“No, the economy is not in a recession,” he said when asked if the economy was in such a state. “As per the National Statistical Office, GDP growth on average was 7.5% in 2014-’19, which is the highest among G-20 countries.”

The minister of state for finance also said that industrial output is now growing at a faster pace. He said the index of industrial production registered a positive growth rate of 1.8% in November 2019 as compared to a contraction of 4% in October and 4.3% in September last year. The government has been undertaking continuous measures to improve the overall investment climate and boost economic growth, Thakur asserted.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Saturday presented the Budget for 2020-’21. In her speech, Sitharaman announced significant cuts for individual taxpayers. The finance minister proposed to increase the agricultural credit availability to Rs 15 lakh crore. However, she admitted that the government would miss its fiscal deficit target for 2019-’20, and set the probable deficit at 3.8%, 0.5 percentage points above the estimate made in July last year. Sitharaman also said that India’s nominal GDP will grow at 10% in 2020-’21.

The Indian economy grew at just 4.5% in the second quarter of 2019-’20, the slowest in 6 years. The government has forecast an annual growth rate of just 5% for the financial year, the slowest in 11 years.