In the backdrop of public criticism mounted by both - the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and finance ministry - against the other after PNB scam, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has expressed need for close coordination between these two institutions and added that the fiscal stance would be loosen if the central bank tightens monetary policy to follow its duty.
Kumar pointed out to the need of a macro-economic team in the country to work together and added that Niti Aayog, the finance ministry and RBI, along with other economic policy makers, can be a part of this team which works in close coordination and express hopes that working this way will result into faster progress.
Niti Aayog Vice Chairman has soothed worries over fiscal deficit, saying that the 3.5% fiscal deficit target, which deviates from the original fiscal consolidation road map, is not very big and affirmed that India is better placed on other macro-economic indicators like inflation, forex reserves and the current account gap. He also expressed confident that economic growth will touch 7.5% in 2018-19, even as other bodies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank peg it to come up to 7.2%.
Besides, Kumar said that the panel is preparing a growth road map for the country till 2022, wherein the GDP growth average for the five-year period has to touch 8.5% and highlighted that India has everything going in its favour in order to accelerate growth.