Economy grew 10.08 pc under Manmohan Singh, highest since liberalisation: Data

New Delhi: Indian economy clocked a 10.08 per cent growth rate in 2006-07 under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the highest since liberalisation of the economy in 1991, according to an official data.

The highest ever growth rate since Independence was recorded at 10.2 per cent in 1988-89 when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. The back series data on GDP has been prepared by the Committee on Real Sector Statistics, constituted by the National Statistical Commission. The report has been released on the website of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI). The report compares growth rates between old series (2004-05) and new series based on 2011-12 prices.

As per the old series (2004-05), the expansion in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices was 9.57 per cent during 2006-07, when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. As per the new series (2011-12), the growth number stands revised at 10.08 per cent. This is the highest growth rate recorded by the country after launch of the economic liberalisation programme launched by then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

"The GDP backseries data is finally out. It proves that like-for-like, the economy under both UPA terms (10 year avg: 8.1 per cent) outperformed the Modi Govt (Avg 7.3 per cent )," the Congress party said in a tweet.

"The UPA also delivered the ONLY instance of double digit annual growth in modern Indian history," it said.

The GDP numbers for the later years too have been revised upwards, according to the report. The National Statistics Commission had set up the Committee to recommend suitable measures to strengthen systems and processes for collection, collation and dissemination of these statistics with possibility for improving timeliness.