Latest GDP figures outcome of 'jumlanomics', says Digvijaya Singh

Govt recently pegged GDP growth at a higher-than-expected 7.1% for 2016-17 despite note ban impact

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday ridiculed the strong GDP figures put out by the National Democratic Alliance government a few days ago, terming them an outcome of "jumlanomics" (rhetoric-based economics).

"After demonetisation, when industries have cut down their production (and) some of them have closed down and some of them have thrown people (employees) out of jobs... Suddenly there are these high growth figures released by the government.

"This is nothing but an outcome of 'jumlanomics' (rhetoric-based economic thinking) of Amit Shah (BJP President), Narendra Modi (Prime Minister) and Arun Jaitley (Finance Minister)," he said.

The government recently pegged GDP growth at a higher-than-expected 7.1 per cent for 2016-17 despite the note ban impact. The GDP grew at a healthy 7 per cent rate in Q3 (October-December period).

Singh claimed that even economists are surprised with these numbers coming post demonetisation and at a time when the economy was going through a bad patch.

"This country is being fooled by the BJP," he alleged.

He said during the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Modi and Shah raised issues which have nothing to do with the people.

"The Prime Minister makes wrong statements about Rahul Gandhi (Congress Vice-President)... This is shameful," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.