Mumbai, April 4 (IANS) RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said that the bank goes by the official data released by the government and refused to join the controversy about the authenticity of GDP figures.

Responding to a question on the authenticity of GDP figures during the press briefing after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, Das said: "It's a debate that is going on ..and its a political one, so I will not answer that question."

Last month, RBI's former Governor Raghuram Rajan had told a TV interviewer: "I know one Minister has said that how it is that we are growing at 7 per cent (growth) and still not having jobs. Well, I would say, one possibility is that we are not growing at 7 per cent."

Earlier, 108 economists had gone public with their concerns and had questioned the GDP official figures.

"Lately, Indian statistics and the institutions have come under a cloud for having been influenced and, indeed even controlled, by political considerations," they had said in a joint statement.

--IANS ravi/sn/prs