Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has blamed outgoing President Barack Obama for a slow economic growth of the US and has questioned why America cannot match up to India's 8% growth rate story.
"Last quarter we were at 1%. 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 3% growth," Trump said on 28 October 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%," he said hours after latest figures said the American economy grew 2.9% at an annual rate in the third quarter of 2016.
If elected, Trump assured a 4% growth rate for the US.
"New growth numbers just released... put the average growth rate for this year at a disastrous 1.5%. If China goes down to 7 or 8% GDP, you know it's like a national catastrophe.
Also Read:Donald Trump praises India for 8% growth, slams 'dying' US economy
"China is at 7%. And China's not happy. So we're at around 1% 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 8 November, 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% 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 US $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