Noted economist and former prime-minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his delight at the unexpected increase in GDP rate during the quarter ending September but cautioned against hoping that the trend might continue.

“As the rate of GDP, which has only witnessed decreasing trend during the past five years, has increased for the first time now, it is time for the concerned to be cautious instead of celebrating,” said Singh, a former RBI Governor and who is considered by many as the architect of economic reforms ushered in during the early nineties when he was made the Union Finance Minister by the then prime-minister Narasimha Rao.

Singh threw a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attempt to set things right as far as the growth of GDP was concerned. “In view of the present state of the country’s economy, the BJP-led Centre can’t hope to attain the kind of GDP growth witnessed during the decade long rule of the Congress-led UPA at the Centre from 2004 to 2014,” said Singh, who was the prime-minister during this period.

“Officials entrusted with gathering statistical data apparently failed in gauging the ill-effects of the economy in the post-demonetization and GST phase,” Singh said. “Modi’s three-and-half-year long rule at the Centre has witnessed only 7.1% growth of the economy, which is far less than the 10.6% growth witnessed during the Congress-led UPA regime for a decade,” Singh concluded.