New Delhi: Even though the gross domestic product (GDP) growth might have slowed, the country had not entered a recessionary phase, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Wednesday. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha during a debate on the state of the economy, Sitharaman said the economy needed a lot of support and every step taken by the government was for its development. Regarding the high NPAs (non-performing assets) in the banking sector, she said it started increasing after the lenders begun recognizing bad loans. Provisioning for bad loans didn’t mean “writing-off” these NPAs, she added. (IANS)