Amaravati, Sep 16 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday alleged that the opposition and its "friendly" media is painting the state's financial management in poor light and claimed that there is no threat to the state's economy.

He told the Assembly that despite Covid-19 and other challenges, the state economy was doing well and in fact, better than many other states and even the national average.

Making a power-point presentation about the actual facts and figures regarding the state's economy and finance, he claimed that YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government has been performing better than the previous TDP government.

"A concerted effort is being made by (TDP chief) Chandrababu Naidu and his friendly media to show the state in dire straits and comparing it with Sri Lanka, while in reality the growth rate of Andhra Pradesh is very rosy and has been very encouraging," he said.

"Braving Covid, we had gone forward balancing welfare and development and state's performance was far better than the previous government and even the national average," he said giving a graphic detail of the comparative figures on GDP, loans taken, government guarantees and other indices to show the financial management is healthy.

"The Gang of Four which follows the principle of plunder, stash and devour have started a vicious campaign to defame the government. People of the state need to know the facts that when the budget of the previous and our government is almost the same and the loans we have taken are less than Chandrababu Naidu regime," he said.

"Why could Chandrababu Naidu not implement the welfare schemes we are implementing?" he asked.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the state's debts increased by 123 per cent under TDP rule (2014-19) while the hike during last three years was only 41 per cent.

Earlier, Industries Minister G. Amarnath said that the opposition is trying to spoil the brand image of the state and have been writing letters to stall the industrial growth in the state.

K. Parthasarathi, Abbaya Choudhary and other MLAs of the ruling party listed out the failure of Chandrababu Naidu government and the initiatives and incentives being given by the YSRCP government to promote industries.