The green shoots the Finance Minister believes she can see are only temporary and will probably perish soon, says Prof. Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics. He says previous upticks in the industrial production index have all reversed and, at the moment, the index is in negative territory. These upticks do not indicate a trend. He expresses the same scepticism about purchasing managers indices, FPI investment and foreign reserves. FPI investment has increased because of global liquidity and not because of the attractiveness of the Indian economy. Foreign exchange reserves have increased because of interventions in the currency market which have attracted foreign exchange.
