By: Express News ServiceNew Delhi | December 16, 2025 04:10 AM IST 2 min readHitting back at Opposition MPs in Lok Sabha who sought the government’s response to US President Donald Trump criticism of India’s economy, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cited the country’s 8.2% growth (in September quarter) and sovereign rating upgrades by global agencies and asked how a “dead economy” was seeing such upgrades.Sitharaman said the economy in the last 10 years transitioned from “external vulnerability to external resilience”.“Every institution is raising our growth outlook for this year and the forthcoming year. There are clear expressions (from the IMF) recognising India’s growth and no dead economy gets a credit rating upgrade by DBRS, S&P and R&I,” Sitharaman said while replying to the Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2025-26, in the Lok Sabha. “Can a dead economy grow at 8.2%? Can a dead economy get credit rating upgrades,” she asked.In July this year, Trump had called India a “dead economy” while expressing disappointment over New Delhi’s posturing to continue buying crude oil from Russia.Sitharaman made the remarks as LS passed the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants Monday, authorising the government for Rs 41,455 crore additional spending in current fiscal, including over Rs 18,000 crore expenditure towards fertiliser subsidy. The LS passed the first batch with a gross additional expenditure of Rs 1.32 lakh crore.“The economy today has moved from fragility to fortitude,” said the Union minister.On the IMF giving “C” grade to India’s national accounts — including GDP and GVA — Sitharaman said India’s grading has remained the same at the median rating of “B”. She said IMF flagged outdated base year and said it should be rebased.Story continues below this ad“So, to say that there has been a downgrade by the IMF is misleading the House. For this year, the IMF gave B for overall statistics,” she said. Sitharaman said debt-to-GDP shot up to 61.4% post-Covid, but Centre’s policies helped to bring it down to 57.1% by 2023-24. “By this year-end, I expect it to come down to 56.1%,” she said.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Nirmala Sitharaman