Chidambaram asks how economy is growing when unemployment is high

Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday raised doubts over the GDP figures, wondering how the economy is growing at 7 per cent when the unemployment rate is the highest in 45 years.

Taking a dig at the Centre, he claimed that when the government revised the GDP figures it did not realise that the unemployment figures also got revised.

Chidambaram’s remark came ahead of the interim Budget on Friday.

The government on Thursday said it had not finalised the survey on labour force which reportedly showed that the unemployment rate in the country hit a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.

The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) periodic labour force survey (PLFS), according to the Business Standard newspaper, states that unemployment was last this high in 1972-73. The unemployment rate was 2.2 per cent in 2011-12, it said.

Courtesy : The Tribune