Economy to bounce back to 8% growth rate by 2015-16: PM

Striking an optimistic note, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today exuded confidence that the economic slowdown will not continue and the country will bounce back to the growth rate of 7 to 8% in next two to three years.

Singh said the government is determined to give a push to the economy as he rejected the Opposition charge over mishandling of the situation and making a mess of it.

Replying to the debate in Rajya Sabha on Motion of Thanks to President's Address, Singh tore into BJP's claim that NDA government had performed better and cited figures in various sectors to show the country had grown much faster during the nine years of UPA rule.

"The Leader of Opposition is right in saying that India needs growth rate of .... He is also right when he said it will require rapid pace of industrialisation. I would like to remind this House this is precisely the intent of UPA government," he said.

Sharing members' concern over the slowdown of economy during the current fiscal, Singh said, "As the Finance Minister said we do not believe growth rate will stay where it is today. We will use all our policies to push up growth rate. We hope and it is our confidence that in two to three years economy will bounce back to high growth of 7 to 8%."

Urging the Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley to be objective and respectful in assessing UPA's performance instead of saying "we have made a mess of it", Singh said the growth rate which was 6.6% in 1998-99 and 7.6% in 1999-00, dipped to 4.3% in 2000-01.

It was recorded at 5.5% in 2001-02 and 4% in 2002-03 and as soon as UPA came to power, the country's growth rate jacked up to 8.1% in 2003-04.

"In 2004-05, we registered a growth of 7%, in 2005-06 - 9.5%, 2006-07 - 9.6, in 2007-08 9.3%, in 2008-09 6.7%, in 2009-10 - 8.6%, in 2010-11 -9.3%, in 2010-11 - 6.3%. It is only in the current year that growth rate will fall to five%," he said.

Singh said that he sincerely hoped "the LOP will reflect calmly on the situation we have dealt with as the path we have chosen is the right path" and stressed that the allocation for social sector schemes went up during the UPA rule in comparison to the NDA period.

"UPA govt focussed on social spending... We are proud of expanding expenditure in social sector. We are proud of making sincere efforts to fulfil the desire of the poor," he said.

Singh said that during NDA rule, there was "token provisions" for "this programme that programme" but the "allocation was so small".

Citing figures to drive home the point that allocations in schemes like PMGSY went up manifold during the UPA rule, the Prime Minister said from a meagre allocation of Rs 9,682 crore in 2001-04, it went up to Rs 56,251 in 2009-13.

Likewise, he said, the UPA continued with the good programmes of NDA like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and even increased spending from only Rs 2,730 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 21,907 crore in 2012-13.