Govt to employ proactive measures to keep growth momentum going: FM

13 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Exuding confidence over the recent set of encouraging economic indications, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee affirmed that the government will resort to proactive measures in order to keep the growth momentum going. The finance minister’s avowal came after the announcement of pleasantly surprising November industrial output figures which showed IIP surpassed all estimates to stage a sharp rebound to 5.9% in November while food prices fell for the second consecutive week as food inflation remained in the negative zone at -2.90% for the week ended December 31, 2011.

The finance minister was of the belief, if the growth trend in IIP numbers persists from here on, then the industry will certainly deliver an improved performance in the last quarter of this financial year, provided the government employs  some proactive measures. He underscored that building on this recovery with a stronger performance of capital goods and therefore investments would lead to recovery in growth momentum in the remaining months of the fiscal year.

Mukherjee also reckons that moderation in inflation would continue in coming months though, softening in the prices of manufactured goods, despite the rapid decline in non-food primary inflation, may be more gradual. He maintained if the declining trend persists then the overall inflation will be manageable and also said that the headline inflation should be between 6-7 percent by end March 2012.

However, food prices are likely to resume the rising trend and even reach around 7% mark by March-April, according to planning commission's principal adviser Pronab Sen as government is still to address some structural issues because of which average food inflation hovered around 7% between 2004 and 2009. Food inflation languished in the negative zone for the second straight week despite a slight uptick in prices because of the high statistical base of the last year.

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