Economy will get back to high growth path: Chidambaram

India is all set to declare that the slowdown in the economy has been overstated owing to faulty official data. On February 7, India will peg the advanced estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the current financial year at 5 per cent. For the last two financial years, the previous estimates will be revised upwards to 7 per cent-plus for 2011-12 and between 5.5 per cent and 6 per cent for 2012-13 by the end of this month. The sharp revisions in growth rates come at a time when the Manmohan Singh-led government is facing sharp criticism on its management of the economy.

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday, said at the Petrotech 2014: “India remains one of the fast growing large economies of the world.... we have grown at 8.6 per cent in 2009-10; 9.3 per cent in 2010-11 and 6.2 per cent in 2011-12 which, I am told, is likely to be revised upward”. GDP growth during the first six months of the current fiscal was 4.6 per cent. For the whole year’s growth rate to be 5 per cent, the rate during October 2013-March 2014 will have to be 5.4 per cent. The First Revised Estimate for 2011-12 GDP growth rate of 6.2 per cent is being revised to more than 7 per cent as faulty data had earlier underestimated industrial output by about 7 percentage points. The Central Statistics Office is scheduled to release the Second Revised Estimate for 2011-12 and First Revised Estimate of 2012-13 by the end of this month. India had grown at a decade-low of 5 per cent in 2012-13, as per the Advanced Estimate. The First Estimate will, however, be more than 5.5 per cent, highly-placed sources told The Hindu.