The Hindu Business Line : Congress pooh-poohs NDA claims on economic front

UNABLE to accelerate the economic growth in the past six years, the NDA Government at the Centre is indulging in a nationwide disinformation campaign, with the `feel good factor' and taking credit for all the wrong reasons on the economic front, the State Congress (I) has alleged.

In a press release, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Leader of the Opposition in the dissolved Assembly, said that despite inheriting one of the best economies in post-Independent India, the present Government has not been able to push the economic reforms on the correct growth path.

Referring to the GDP growth rate, Dr Reddy said the NDA Government had targeted an 8 per cent rate. But, given the fact that the last three years of the Eighth Five Year Plan registered a GDP growth rate of 7.3 per cent, it should have been possible. However, during 1998-2004, the growth was not more than 5.3 per cent. Even, while taking into account the prospect of the GDP growth rate touching 7 per cent for the entire current fiscal, as predicted by the RBI, it can be seen that the overall GDP rate would be around 5.3 per cent in the last seven years.

The Government instead of feeling apologetic for failing to accelerate economic growth is trying to argue that the economy is on a revival path quoting the first quarter GDP growth rate of 8 per cent. In 1988-89, the economy registered 10.65 per cent GDP growth rate due to a slow growth rate of 4.3 per cent the preceding year.

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