The economic policies of Modi's government focused on privatisation and liberalisation of the economy, based on a neoliberal framework.[3][5] Modi liberalised India's foreign direct investment policies, allowing more foreign investment in several industries, including in defence and the railways.[3][6][7][8] Other reforms included removing many of the country's labor laws, to make it harder for workers to form unions and easier for employers to hire and fire them.[5] These reforms met with support from institutions such as the World Bank, but opposition from scholars within the country. The labour laws also drew strong opposition from unions: on 2 September 2015, eleven of the country's largest unions went on strike, including one affiliated with the BJP.[5] The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a constituent of the Sangh Parivar, stated that the reforms would hurt laborers by making it easier for corporations to exploit them.[3] In his first budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised to gradually reduce the budgetary deficit from 4.1% to 3% over two years, and to divest from shares in public banks.[3] Over Modi's first year in office, the Indian GDP grew at a rate of 7.5%, making it the fastest growing large economy.[5] This was basis a revised formula introduced a year after he took office, which surprised a lot of economists.[9] However, this rate of growth had fallen significantly to 6.1%, even by the revised metric, by his third year in office.[10] This fall has been blamed on the exercise of demonetisation of currency.