Higher crude oil price was responsible for the pulling down the country’s GDP growth to 6.9 per cent last year from about eight per cent, petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the fifth OPEC International Seminar in Vienna on Wednesday, Reddy said, “It is estimated that a sustained 10 dollar increase in oil prices lead to a 1.5 per cent reduction in the GDP of developing countries. We have seen evidence of this in our own country. India’s GDP grew at 6.9 per cent during the last financial year down from the eight per cent plus growth rate experienced in the past few years”.