'Economy poised for higher growth'

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 15 September 2003, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Saturday said the "feel-good" factor has returned and the economy was poised for a high growth with good monsoons, industrial recovery and buoyant capital market.

NEW DELHI: "My target is very high. India should have the highest growth rate in the world. I cannot give a figure but wait for some time and the picture will be clear," he said, adding that monsoons have been good, productions and exports are up. The "feel-good" factor has returned in the country and he was optimistic of a higher GDP growth as well, Singh said in an interview to Doordarshan. Referring to his interaction with former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan and Saturday's meeting with new Governor YV Reddy, Singh said all economic factors were regarded as "positive". While RBI forecasts a GDP growth at "significantly" higher than six per cent, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pegged it at 5.5 per cent this fiscal. "There have been discussions about India even in IMF. Except India, there is no country where all the economic parameters have been doing well," he said. Singh attributed the slump in GDP growth to 4.4 per cent last fiscal to decade's worst drought, global slowdown, Iraq war, oil price volatility and the Indo-Pak border tension. Despite the rise in international oil prices, he said India's inflation rate did not rise substantially while forex reserves increased to all time high. Singh, however, admitted that there was some difficulty with the burgeoning fiscal deficit and the internal debt.