Fact Check: BJP's infographic showing India's 1.9% growth based on old IMF data

Hyderabad: The BJP's official Twitter account recently tweeted that India's 1.9 per cent growth estimate for 2020 is the highest economic growth among many other countries amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The tweet was accompanied by an infographic that listed the gross domestic product (GDP) growth percentages of nine countries.

The tweet read, "While the world continues to grapple with economic bloodbath with major economies projected to register negative growth in the aftermath of #COVID pandemic, India will be a shining spot with positive growth in 2020. It will also retain its status of the fastest growing economy."

https://t.co/lELEbZaDl3

This infographic was also shared by BJP Nagaland, BJP Delhi and BJP Odisha. Several BJP MPs like Manoj Rajoria, Nityanand Rai, and Rajesh Verma had also shared the same.

The Archived claim can be found here.

FACT CHECK:

This claim is misleading.

The latest data (June 2020) released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that India's 2020 projected growth is minus (-) 4.5 per cent, while global growth is projected at minus (-) 4.9 per cent.

The image below is taken from the World Economic Outlook Update 2020 published in June this year and shows that only China will see a positive growth while all other economies, including India, will experience negative growth.

The June update to the April 2020 report said, "Global growth is projected at –4.9 per cent in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April 2020 World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a more negative impact on activity in the first half of 2020 than anticipated, and the recovery is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast."

The report also added, "India's economy is projected to contract by 4.5 percent following a long period of lockdown and slower recovery than anticipated in April."

According to the World Economic Outlook report published in April 2020, India was projected to grow at 1.9 per cent. This makes it clear that BJP's infographic is based on data published by the IMF in April 2020 and ignores the update published in June.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also stated that India's GDP growth will be negative in 2020-21 as COVID-19 has disrupted economic activities. In a television address, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the global economy is heading into recession. He also said inflation outlook is "highly uncertain".

Apart from this, Alt News also debunked BJP's clam.

Thus, BJP's claim that India will report a 1.9 percent growth in 2020 even as many economies will see a negative growth is misleading. It is based on old data.