Pranab says growth to beat CSO estimate,hit 7.75 pc

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that India may clock a growth in the upper range of most projections including...

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that India may clock a growth in the upper range of most projections including the 7.75 per cent growth projection given by the Economic Survey last year. Mukherjee sounded optimistic that India would cross the 7.2 per cent growth rate predicted by the Central Statistical Organisation CSO recently.

The Economic Survey 2008-09 had indicated that the upper bound of growth in real GDP for the year 2009-10 could be around 7.75 per cent. With the latest GDP data on 2009-10 indicating 7.9 per cent growth in the second quarter,the growth outlook for the next two quarters and for the whole year is expected to be in the upper bound range of most predictions for the Indian economy, Mukherjee said at the Consultative Committee meeting of the Colombo Plan a group of nations for economic and social improvement in south and southeast Asia.

When the final figures come,particularly for the third quarter,I think there may be improvement over CSOs estimate of 7.2 per cent. Anyway,7.2 per cent in the current situation is not bad, he said. Even last fiscal,the Central Statistical Organisation had predicted 6.5 per cent growth in its advance estimates but the economy registered 6.7 per cent growth,he added.

The minister,however,said that a lot needs to be done in the infrastructure sector to sustain high growth in the future. It is estimated that investment requirement in the infrastructure sector would be of the order of 514 billion during the five year period between 2007 and 2012, he said. Currently,450 public private partnership PPP projects are being implemented in various parts of the country with an estimated project cost of 47.7 billion. The minister said that the infrastructure deficit in the country could be met by deepening PPP ties for development initiatives.

Recently the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy CMIE had forecasted a 7.75 per cent growth for this fiscal,while RBI had pegged it at 7.5 per cent. The International Monetary Fund has also said that the Indian economy is likely to grow at 7.75 per cent for the year 2009-10.