|
Sarkaritel.com News and
Features
India can sustain 9-10% GDP growth: PM
New Delhi, January 09, 2008
Conditions were favourable for India to achieve and sustain
economic growth of 9-10 percent, although it required an
increase in savings and investment rates, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.
India has grown at an average of 8.6 percent over the past
four fiscal years, and is poised to grow at a similar pace in
the 2007/08 fiscal year which ends in March.
"It has been a good year for the Indian economy, for our
working people and our entrepreneurs. The conditions are today
favourable to achieve and sustain 9-10 growth rate," Singh
said at a function for India's large expatriate community.
"The ambitious growth rate that we seek to achieve will
require determined efforts to raise our savings and
investments rates. The bulk of resources for India's
development must come from home."
India's savings rate has reached 34 percent of gross domestic
product and the investment rate has crossed 35 percent. The
government expects these high rates to rise because of India's
young population profile.
Singh was speaking at the government's annual "Pravasi
Bharatiya Diwas" (Overseas Indians Day), which honours
prominent expatriate Indians and also taps the community for
investments.
Globally, expatriate Indians have an estimated US$1 trillion
in assets, and wealth managers in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong
and elsewhere have been stepping up efforts to help manage it.
Bureau Report OPPORTUNITIES India, Asia's third-largest
economy, grew 9.4 percent in the 2006/07 fiscal year, its
strongest in 18 years and second only to China among major
economies. Annual growth dipped to 8.9 percent in the
September quarter, falling below 9 percent for the first time
in three quarters, as industrial output slowed due to monetary
tightening measures designed to trim inflation. But policy
makers are confident of maintaining growth momentum despite a
surge in the value of the rupee against the dollar, higher
interest rates and record global crude oil prices.
India's surging expansion and record-setting stock market
has pushed firms to expand capacity and drawn global
investors. Singh said his government wanted to create a
framework which would provide profitable opportunities for
expatriates to invest in India's development. He urged
community leaders to develop better coordination with the
country's diplomatic missions. "This message is specially
relevant today as we see growing violence in many parts of the
world where our communities are settled," Singh said.
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com |
