GDP : A Statistical Jugglery

I call the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a "statistical jugglery” and call for a new economic thinking model that takes into account the spirituality factor to tide over the global economic crisis.

While speaking at an interactive session with members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) recently in Kolkata, I termed GDP to be confusing and whimsical. It is a statistical jugglery created only to give a false index of development... During the last five years, we continued to lose jobs, but the GDP was growing.

A successful economic model should be oriented for the common man. A totally new thinking is necessary all over the world. Without spirituality, no economic or political system will work.

I oppose total dependence on a state-controlled economy as also an exclusively market-regulated model. State and market both are needed.

If you ask about my party-led government’s pursuits of reforms and liberalization in power from 1998 to 2004, I would say that there has to be a continuity of government policies. Our country adopted a certain path of economy before we came to power. We continued it. One needs time to change it, but before that time came we were out of power.