Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

According to a report prepared by the National Statistical Commission, the Indian economy had a 10.08% GDP growth rate during the United Progressive Alliance government (UPA) under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006-07, which is the highest post India’s liberalisation reforms in 1991. The highest ever growth rate since 1947 was recorded at 10.2% in 1988-89 when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. The report, prepared by the Committee on Real Sector Statistics, is available on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MOSPI) website.

The calculations on the report were made by a sub-committee headed by N.R. Bhanumurthy, which was under the committee on Real Sector Statistics headed by Sudipto Mundle. Bhanumurthy is currently a professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), while Mundle is an emeritus professor at the institute.

In 2015, the government had shifted the base year to 2011-12 from 2004-05. Subsequently, the report compares the old series growth rates to the new series growth rates. Bhanumurthy was also tasked with the job of linking the new GDP series to the old back series date, which has been missing since the government shifted the base year. The report was also prepared in hopes that it would help economists to make long-term GDP growth forecasts for the future.

The committee has also adjusted numbers for the 1994-2014 period, raising the average growth in the first 5 years of the Congress led United Progressive Alliance to 8.37% from 8.3%. The average GDP growth during late Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister from 1998 to 2004 has been brought down to 5.73% from 5.9%. However, a Central Statistics Office spokesperson said that these are “indicative and experimental numbers”, and that final figures based on sectoral data will be calculated within a month’s time.

By Kriti

Business news author and curator at The Indian Wire.

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