Mumbai: The slowdown in the growth rate of the economy has fuelled fears of a recession and things could get worse if the finance minister did not take adequate measures to control inflation and the rupee-dollar exchange rate, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has warned.

Reacting to the Economic Survey 2007-08 tabled in Parliament today, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha critised the government for "reversing the trends of the economy under the NDA regime."

"We passed on a high-growth economy with low interest rates and high investments, while the UPA has reversed this to low-growth and high-interest rate economy and consequently lower capital investment," Sinha said.

The government's claim that inflation has been controlled is hollow as figures in the survey showed the trend of hardening of inflation, he said.

"The slowdown in the economy is an admission of failure by the government," Sinha said, adding, "If one looks at the index of industrial production, it has come down almost two percentage points, it signals a slowdown in demand, there is a drop in construction demand. Due to tight money market, there is also a decelaration of credit availability," he said.

He also accused the government of misleading the people about capital flows into the agriculture sector.

He said the President in her address to Parliament said, "Capital investment in agriculture had gone up, but the figures in the Economic Survey are contrary."

He demanded that the finance minister mention the steps he is going to take to keep the economy on the growth path amidst a global recession. The Indian economy has to be ready to absorb the impact or else it would have a heavy impact on government finances and the economy as a whole, he added.