AP surpasses national GDP growth: Minister

Hyderabad, Dec 6 (UNI) Dismissing as ''politically-motivated'' the opposition criticism of falling prices for farmers produce, Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K Rosaiah today said the state had surpassed the national GDP half-yearly growth of 9.13 per cent by 0.57 per cent this year, spurred by the agriculture sector growth.

Brushing aside the opposition charges of high incidents of suicide among farmers, he told a press conference here the Gross State Domestic Product grew by an unprecedented 9.70 per cent during the half year, spurred by solid agricultural growth of 10.20 per cent. This was far more than 3.70 per cent projected for the country, thanks to bountiful rains and the government's prestigious ''Jalayagnam'' (irrigation initiative).

He expressed confidence that Andhra Pradesh, an agrarian state, will achieve a growth of nine to 9.5 per cent for the entire year as against 8.4 per cent to 8.7 per cent forecast by the Reserve Bank of India for the nation during the entire year.

While the opposition was making an undue emphasis on hike in MSP for Paddy, the state Government was pressing with the Centre for hiking the MSP for all crops to raise the standard of living of farmers, he said.

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