Niti Aayog blames former RBI governor’s policies for economy slowed down

New Delhi: Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said that the slowdown in country’s economy is not due to demonetisation but because of the policies of former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan.

During an interview to the news agency ANI Rajiv Kumar said, Rajan’s policies on non-performing assets (NPAs) led to the slowdown in the economy and not the government’s decision to ban 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

Holding Rajan responsible for the causes of decline, Rajiv Kumar said, Rajan’s stressed account policies led to a surge in NPAs in the banking sector.

Elaborating further he said the economy slowed down because banks stopped giving credit to the industry which was the result of Rajan’s revised mechanism of identifying NPAs. The NPAs rose to Rs. 10.5 lakh crore by mid-2017 from Rs. 4 lakh core when the present government took office, he said.