Notwithstanding the challenge accepted by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar thrown by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the issue of GDP data, the senior Congress leader on Saturday poked fun at the BJP over the GDP growth data. Without any reference to Niti Aayog's acceptance of his challenge, Chidambaram said the Centre's claim did not warrant any jubilation over the state of economy.
In a series of tweets, the senior Congress leader said that as expected, the GDP growth in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2018-19 was a good one per cent lower than in the April-June quarter (Q1).
"Q1 number was on a very low base in the previous year. It did not signify a bump in growth and did not warrant the jubilation of the BJP three months ago," he said.
Chidambaram said going forward, it was likely that the October-December (Q3) and January-March (Q4) quarters would register similar growth rates unless there were unexpected shocks. "The new normal for the Indian economy is 7 per cent and 2018-19 will be a normal year," he said.
India's economy grew at 7.1 per cent in the July-September quarter, lowest in three quarters, but still remained ahead of China to retain the tag of the world's fastest growing major economy.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices (2011-12) had grown at 6.3 per cent in the July-September quarter of the last fiscal, according to Government data released Friday.
The size of the GDP in the second quarter of 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 33.98 lakh crore, as against Rs 31.72 lakh crore a year ago, showing a growth rate of 7.1 per cent, according to a statement of the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The Indian economy grew at 8.2 per cent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal. GDP growth was 7.7 per cent in the January-March quarter.
Rajiv Kumar on Friday accepted Chidambaram's challenge for a debate on revised Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data after the former finance minister on Thursday termed the revised GDP data series published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) as a "bad joke" and challenged Kumar for a debate.
Speaking to the media, the Niti Aayog Vice Chairman said, "Please request him to take up the challenge. This work is done by most competent people in Central Statistics Office whose work has always been accepted."