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India is the fastest-growing economy and will soon be third largest: Piyush Goyal counters Donald Trump's 'dead economy' jibe
ET Online | July 31, 2025 9:20 PM CST

Synopsis

Union Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted India's economic transformation amid Trump's tariff announcement. Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods starting August 1, along with penalties for purchasing Russian crude oil and military equipment. Trump criticized India's high tariffs and trade barriers, viewing them as detrimental to US-India trade relations, despite India being a friend.

During the Parliament Monsoon Session, Union Minister Piyush Goyal while responding to Trump tariffs said that India will soon become the third largest in the world in terms of GDP size and is currently the world's fastest growing major economy.

In what appeared to be a response to US President Donald Trump's jibe that India is a 'dead economy', Goyal highlighted that the Indian economy will soon become the third largest in the world in terms of GDP size and is currently the world's fastest growing major economy. He also said that in a span of few years India has gone from being the world's 11th largest to the 5th largest.

"Within just a decade, India has transformed from being one of the 'Fragile Five' economies to one of the largest economies in the world," said Piyush Goyal.

"We have become one of the top five economies in the world due to our reforms and the hard work of our farmers, entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Soon, we will become the third-largest economy in the world," added Goyal.

Earlier today Trump shared on Truth Social, "I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!".

Trump on Wednesday announced the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on all goods coming from India starting August 1, plus an unspecified penalty for buying Russian crude oil and military equipment.

The surprise announcement came a day after Indian officials said that a US trade team would visit from August 25 to negotiate a trade deal.

The announcement is being seen as a pressure tactic to get New Delhi to agree to demands made by the US, which has, in recent days, got favourable trade deals with major partners like Japan, the UK and the European Union.

Trump termed India's trade policies as "most strenuous and obnoxious".

"All things not good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25 per cent, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August first," Trump said in a social media post.

The penalty was announced as India has made large purchases of oil and military equipment from Russia. India is the first country to face a penalty for Russian imports.

India's import of crude oil from Russia has risen from 0.2 per cent of total purchases before the Russia-Ukraine war to 35-40 per cent. New Delhi is the largest buyer of Russian oil after China.

Trump said though India is America's friend, "we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their (India) tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country".

He said India has always purchased a significant amount of military equipment and energy products from Russia at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the "killing" in Ukraine.


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