NEW DELHI: Arun Jaitley on Sunday hit out at Congress's claims of generating fastest economic expansion during its term in office, saying it benefited from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's policies and the global boom. He also said the growth was accompanied by weak macros manifested in high fiscal and current account deficits, and high inflation.

"In 2004, the government had the benefit of continuous incremental reforms from 1991 to 2004. The global tailwinds strongly supported growth. Since demand was high, exports were growing and, therefore, for an emerging economy like India, it was a great opportunity. There were no significant domestic reforms carried out during this period," Union minister Arun Jaitley wrote in a blog.

"When this honeymoon ended, growth started slipping down and to ensure that growth is maintained, two steps were taken. Firstly, fiscal discipline was compromised and the banking system was advised to go in for reckless lending. And yet, when the UPA moved out of power in 2014, the last three-year record, even in terms of growth, was less than modest," he added.

The war of words between Congress and BJP prompted the the ministry of statistics and programme implementation as well as the National Statistical Commission which had set up the committee which revised the estimates, to clarify that the report had not been accepted yet.

