MUMBAI: A government agency report has cast fresh doubts on India's economic growth figures, in a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he seeks re-election in ongoing polls. Data compiled by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) found that there were significant gaps in how the growth figures of Asia's third-largest economy are calculated.
PM Modi regularly trumpets his economic credentials but the opposition Congress party says his government spins statistics to make their record on the economy look better than previous administrations. The NSSO study found that more than one-third of companies included in a database used to calculate India's economic growth were "closed, out of coverage, or non-traceable".
"India's GDP figures and data have been under scrutiny for sometime now internationally," said Ashutosh Datar, a Mumbai-based economist. "These new reports raise more questions about their credibility and accuracy," he added.
The report was released last week but only came to light on Wednesday when it was reported by a business daily. PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have clashed over gross domestic product (GDP) numbers since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led administration last year revised down growth figures for when Congress was in power.
The revision, based on a new way of calculating GDP that PM Modi's regime introduced four years ago, saw average growth under Congress from 2005-2012 fall below that recorded by the BJP since it took over the government in 2014.
PM Modi's government has defended the changes, saying they bring India more in line with how GDP is calculated in other major economies. The new data is the second time this year that statistics released by a government agency have threatened to embarrass the government.
In January, data leaked from the statistics ministry showed India's unemployment rate hitting a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. GDP growth slowed from 7.1 per cent to 6.6 per cent in the third quarter of the 2018-19 financial year, data released in February showed.
Economists say that the Indian economy needs to grow at least 7 percent per annum to create jobs for the estimated one million people entering the labour market each month. The results of the election are due on May 23.
Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh had said that Modi should be shown the exit door as his five-year rule has been "most traumatic and devastating" for India's youths, farmers, traders and every democratic institution and that the "will of one person" cannot be imposed on a diverse country like India.
Singh dismissed the notion that there was a wave in favour of Modi and asserted that the people would to vote out the government that "does not believe in inclusive growth and is only worried about its political existence at the altar of disharmony".