Significantly below par performance: Congress on 6.5% GDP for 2024-25

New Delhi: The Congress Friday said India's estimated 6.5 per cent GDP growth rate for FY 2024-25 is "significantly below par", a sharp deceleration from that witnessed in 2022-23 which was far removed from the high recorded during the Manmohan Singh government.

Party general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released its provisional estimates for GDP growth in FY 2024-2025.

"Annual real GDP growth is 6.5 per cent -- a sharp deceleration from the growth witnessed even in FY22-23 and far removed from the high growth record of 7.7 per cent annually during Dr Manmohan Singh's decade as PM," he said in a post on X.

"The fine print raises more concerns. The Jan-Mar 2025 manufacturing sector growth was 4.8 per cent versus 11.3 per cent a year ago. Rather than grappling with this reality, the government has once again resorted to spin-doctoring, claiming that 'manufacturing systemic reforms will show results over time'," the Congress leader said.

In a jibe at the government, Ramesh said that 11 years after Make in India was launched, "we are being told today to wait longer for it to show even initial results".

He said India's demographic dividend and favourable international geopolitics offer a historic opportunity to embark on a high-growth sprint over the next two to three decades.

"In these circumstances, 6.5 per cent growth is a significantly below-par performance unlike to be improved given tepid consumption growth, stagnant real wages, sharpening inequalities, and continued lukewarm private investment rates within the country," the Congress leader said.

India's economic growth slowed to 7.4 per cent in the January-March period, and pulled down the annual growth rate for 2024-25 to a four-year low of 6.5 per cent, mainly due to the manufacturing sector, official data showed on Friday.

The size of the Indian economy rose to Rs 330.68 lakh crore or about USD 3.9 trillion and set the stage for achieving the USD 5 trillion target in the next few years. In the previous 2023-24 fiscal year, the economy grew 9.2 per cent.

The economic expansion was recorded at 7.4 per cent during January-March 2025, while it was 6.4 per cent in October-December 2024, 5.6 per cent in July-September 2024, and 6.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of the last financial year, according to economic estimates released by the NSO.

The NSO, in its second advance estimate released in February, projected the GDP growth for 2024-25 at 6.5 per cent.