Focus will remain on achieving 8 per cent inclusive growth: PM

Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said though the economy faced a difficult situation in the past year, the government aims to achieve an average growth of 8 per cent during the 12th Five Year Plan.

Singh said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had delivered an average economic growth rate of 7.9 per cent since it took office.

"This is the highest growth rate ever achieved by any government over its tenure. Even if the comparison is limited to the six years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the growth was only 6 per cent," the Prime Minister said in Parliament.

"As the honourable president mentioned, our economy has faced a difficult situation in the past year. However, I do want to emphatically endorse the view of the finance minister (P. Chidambaram) that the slowdown in the economy need not persist," he said. "While our aim is to achieve an average GDP growth of 8 per cent during the 12th Plan (2012-17), the focus will continue to remain on inclusive growth ."

Singh said the improved performance in agriculture was reflected in the growth of per capita consumption in rural areas.

"Agricultural growth in the UPA period was 3.5 per cent compared with only 2.9 per cent per year in the NDA period (1998-99 to 2003-04)," he said.

The Prime Minister also said the government's policies led to a growth of 6.8 per cent per year in real agricultural wages in the 11th Five Year Plan compared with only 1.1 per cent in the previous decade.

with inputs from IANS