side.Although the growth numbers raised eyebrows among
economists on the veracity of the
data, most of them believed that the economic expansion would
remain robust.I take it that the 8.8% growth is what happened, said
Kaushik Basu, chief economic
advisor in the finance ministry. This is excellent performance
by all standards even though,admittedly, it got a boost from the
base effect. The third quarter should be excellent. There
will be a positive base effect and agriculture.But economists
did not see the event undermining the credibility of the
organisation that is
in the process of strengthening the data it puts out.The CSO has
been doing this exercise for many years and a one-off event like
this cannot
erode its credibility, DK Joshi, chief economist at rating
agency Crisil, said.
