Abhishek Manu Singhvi takes jibe at NDA’s claim on growth rate, shows NSC data

Taking a jibe on the NDA government’s GDP growth declarations, Congress party leader Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed out a new back series data that revealed that Indian economy grew at a faster pace in two terms of the UPA government. As compared to the growth in the last four years of NDA government, the UPA government grew at a fast rate from 2004-05 and 2013-14.

Singhvi compared the growth rate with the last three regimes at the centre with the present regime of NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He took to Twitter and wrote:

Here is the comparative table of average growth rates under the four governments:

NDA I: 5.58%
UPA I: 8.36%
UPA II: 7.68%
NDA II: 7.33%#ManmohanSingh#GDPtruth

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) August 19, 2018

Earlier too, Congress has alleged, “The GDP back series data is finally out. It proves that like-for-like, the economy under both UPA terms (10-year avg: 8.1%) outperformed the Modi Govt (Avg 7.3%). The UPA also delivered the only instance of double-digit annual growth in modern Indian history.”

If we look at the revised GDP backseries data at Market Prices, not only did UPA I & II far outperform both NDA I & II, but also delivered double digit growth TWICE.

A record unparalleled in modern Indian history.#DrSinghGDPking pic.twitter.com/9bLC58W0UK

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 18, 2018

When numbers speak, words are unnecessary. #DrSinghGDPking pic.twitter.com/0mb4nh3tfc

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 18, 2018

“The purpose of this report is to present long-time back-series data on national production, which helps people in developing a better understanding of the macro-economy and its management,” said NR Bhanumurthy, in his interaction with The Indian Express. Bhanumurthy is a member of the Committee and a professor at the NIPFP.

The data was released by a committee that was given the work of recommending ways to give strength to the data collection system in India. This data was a part of a report on ‘Real Sector Statistics’ which was recently submitted by the Committee to the National Statistical Commission. It revealed that India’s growth reached the double-digit mark in 2006-07 when the rate was 10.08 per cent.

The global financial crisis in 2008 which had an impact on financial markets and on the economies around the world led to the rate dropping to 7.16 per cent in 2008-09. The last two years with the UPA government at the helm has seen the growth rate fall to 5.42 per cent in 2012-13 and 6.05 per cent in 2013-14.

The Committee on Real Sector Statistics has pointed out that the difference between the growth rates of the economy in the old series (2004-05) and the new back series (2011-12 base) is very small.