Even Pak Handled COVID Better: Rahul Hits Out over IMF Data Again

Rahul Gandhi mocked the government’s management of the pandemic by highlighting India’s dismal GDP projections.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

(Image: Twitter)

On Friday, 16 October, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to express his disdain over the central government’s handling of the pandemic, calling it another “solid achievement”.

He supported his claim with a chart showing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) GDP growth projections of 2020-21. IMF’s projections noted that India’s projected GDP growth (-10.30 per cent) was below Pakistan (-0.40 per cent) and Afghanistan (-5 per cent), which Gandhi made sure to highlight.

The IMF said on Tuesday that India’s economic growth forecast, hit severely by the coronavirus, is projected to contract by 10.3 percent in 2020-21, which will see the country drop below Bangladesh in terms of per capita GDP, NDTV reported, quoting the IMF report.

Gandhi took a jab at BJP once earlier this week too, over India’s falling GDP, having put out a tweet about Bangladesh and India’s GDP earlier this week, also mentioning the central government’s “hate-filled cultural nationalism”.

The IMF’s projections show that the contraction will be sharper than the previous estimate of a 4.5 percent decline induced by the coronavirus impact. The emerging markets have been impacted majorly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Released on Tuesday ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, IMF's ''World Economic Outlook'' report said global growth would contract by 4.4 percent this year and bounce back to 5.2 percent in 2021, reported news agency PTI.