Govt says GDP data not official; catch up with UPA II, taunts Cong

Chidambaram says the Modi government had inherited an economy that was on the upswing

The government and the Congress sparred on Sunday over conclusions thrown up by the back-series gross domestic product (GDP) figures, provided by a panel, while the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said the numbers were not official.

The data showed economic growth touched double digits twice during the UPA regime (2004-14) and average growth delivered by the government then was much better than that of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA 1) government of 1998-2004 and the first four years of the Modi government (NDA 2).

This prompted the Congress to field its veteran hand P Chidambaram, who was finance