Manmohan Singh on GDP: Demonetisation slowed growth, industry GVA took 7% hit

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the country's growth has slowed down mainly because of demonetisation and the economy is running on just one engine of public spendingHe expressed serious concern over the situation, particularly the impact on job creationSingh, in his intervention at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet, talked about the decline in the economic growth as depicted in the last quarter GDP numbersHe said the slow down was primarily due to demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 November last year[caption id="attachment_3394158" align="alignleft" width="380"] Former prime minister Manmohan Singh. PTI[/caption]He said the Gross Value Addition (GVA) is the true sub-measure of economic activity and it has experienced a steep and sustained fall"Private sector investment has collapsed and the economy is running on just one engine of public spending," he said at the meeting, chaired by Congress President Sonia GandhiSingh said the GVA growth of industry has fallen from 10.7 percent in March 2016 to just 3.8 percent in March 2017, a decline of nearly seven percentage points of growth"The most worrisome aspect of all this is the impact on job creation. Jobs have been extremely hard to come by for the youth of the nation," he saidThe former Prime Minister noted that the construction industry, which is one of the largest employment generators in the country, has suffered contraction. This, he said, "implies loss of millions of jobs for the nation's workforce".