16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya dismissed Donald Trump’s “dead economy” jibe, highlighting India’s 7%+ GDP growth, and even higher growth in dollar terms.
Panagariya acknowledged some protectionist measures but maintained India remains “substantially open” to trade.
Trump had called India a “dead economy” and imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods entering the US, with limited exemptions.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal defended India’s economic performance in Parliament, noting it contributes.
Dismissing US President Donald Trump's "dead economy" jibe, 16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Friday said the Indian economy is growing at 7%, and more than that in dollar terms.
Panagariya was speaking at the Business Today India@100 event.
"You don't grow at 7%plus (if the economy is dead), and actually in dollar terms we are growing at more than 7%. I don't know what the definition (of dead economy) means. May be, dead bodies do move," he said when asked if India is a dead economy.
Asked about India's trade protectionism, Panagariya said: "There may be protectionist measures... We are substantially open".
Mounting a sharp attack on India, Trump had remarked that India is a "dead economy".
"I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care," Trump had said in a social media post on July 31.
Trump later imposed 50% tariff on Indian goods imported to the US with a brief exemption list.
Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had last week asserted in Parliament that India is the world's fastest-growing major economy, contributing almost 16 per cent to the global growth and will soon become the third-largest economy in the world.
"In just over a decade, India has rapidly transformed from being one of the Fragile 5 to the fastest-growing major economy in the world. We have risen from the 11th largest economy to one of the top 5 economies, driven by our reforms, the hard work of our farmers, MSMEs and entrepreneurs," Goyal had said in Parliament on July 31.
