Trump cites India's economic rise as he pledges 4% growth for US

Donald Trump has blamed outgoing President Barack Obama for a slow economic growth of the US

Washington, Oct 29: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has blamed outgoing President Barack Obama for a slow economic growth of the US, saying if a large country like India can manage a growth rate of eight per cent then why America cannot do it.

"Last quarter we were at one per cent. Our job numbers last week were horrible. They were anemic, as the expression goes. Obama is the first president in modern history not to have a single year of three per cent growth," Trump said on Friday at an election rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

"They say it's hard because we're a large county. Well, India is a much larger country and they're at 8 per cent," he said hours after latest figures said the American economy grew 2.9 per cent at an annual rate in the third quarter of 2016. If elected, Trump assured a four per cent growth rate for the US.

"New growth numbers just released... put the average growth rate for this year at a disastrous 1.5 per cent. If China goes down to 7 or 8 per cent GDP, you know it's like a national catastrophe. "China is at 7 per cent. And China's not happy. So we're at around 1 per cent and we just keep going along, just keep going along losing our jobs to Mexico and every other place. 47 million Americans are on food stamps, and 45 million people are living in poverty," he said.

The New York-based real estate mogul said he has proposed a contract with the American voter which will end corruption and give government back to its people.

"I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear and heed the words ... if we win on November 8, we are going to Washington DC. We are going to drain the swamp," he said. "We will also stand up to Chinese currency manipulation and we will stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will become a rich nation again, but to be a rich nation, we must also be a safe nation," he said.

Alleging that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton "unleashed ISIS onto the world" which has spread into the US, Trump claimed that at present there 1,000 open ISIS probes across the country, "more than at any time that we've ever had".

"Now, Hillary wants to increase by 550 per cent the massive number of Syrian refugees flowing into our country. That's over the Obama numbers, and those are thousands and thousands of people.

A Trump administration will suspend the Syrian refugee programme," he said. "We will help them will safe havens and we'll get other countries over there, like the Gulf states who have nothing but money, we have USD 20 trillion in debt. We'll get them to pay, they gotta do their share.

We'll lead it, we'll help, they'll pay, but you know what? We can't let people into this country that we don't know," he said.

PTI