New Delhi, Jul 19 (IANS): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh highlighted the performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government while attending the 92nd annual general meeting of Assocham here Friday.

. The average growth rate in the 8 years of the UPA from 2004-05 to 2012-13 was 8.2 percent per annum. This is much better than the 5.7 percent reached in the previous 8 years.

. Agriculture did much better in the Eleventh Plan than in the Tenth Plan. This is reflected in real per capita rural consumption rising at 2.9 percent per year between 2004-05 and 2011-12 compared with only one percent between 1993-94 and 2004-05.

. Rural real wages have also risen much faster (6.8 percent per year in the 11th Plan as compared to an average of 1.1 percent per year in the ten years preceding it).

. The percentage of population below the poverty line declined at 0.75 percentage points per year before our government came to office in 2004-05. It has fallen more than 2 percentage points per year between 2004-05 and 2011-12.