Raghuram Rajan Did Not Say India’s Economy Is Becoming Like Sri Lanka’s
A Facebook post is being widely shared on social media, claiming that the former head of the Reserve Bank of India said that India’s economy is becoming like Sri Lanka’s. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Raghuram Rajan said that Indian Economy is deteriorating in a manner similar to that of Sri Lanka’s.
Fact: Raghuram Rajan has not made this statement. In fact, he said that India will not be facing the same economic issues as Sri Lanka and Pakistan and lauded RBI for maintaining and increasing foreign exchange reserves. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
After conducting a search on the internet using relevant keywords, we found an interview of Raghuram Rajan in July 2022 where he was asked whether India will face economic challenges similar to those of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In response, Rajan stated that India has sufficient foreign exchange reserves and that the Reserve Bank of India has done a good job of increasing them. He further added that India will not be facing the same economic issues as Sri Lanka and Pakistan and has a lower amount of foreign debt.
During an interview with the news agency PTI in March 2023, Raghuram Rajan expressed concern that India is ‘dangerously close’ to the Hindu rate of growth due to subdued private sector investment, high-interest rates, and slowing global growth. He described the recent sequential slowdown in India’s GDP growth as ‘worrying,’ with Q3 growth falling to 4.4% from 6.3% in the previous quarter. However, a report from SBI economists rejected these claims, arguing that such statements are ‘ill-conceived, biased, and premature’, reported The Times of India.
To sum it up, there is no evidence to suggest that Raghuram Rajan made a statement about India’s economy deteriorating like Sri Lanka’s.