India to attain high growth in spite of week global cues: FM

08 Aug 2011 Evaluate

Despite the negative sentiments across the world along with Standard & Poor's (S&Ps) downgrading the sovereign rating of the US government from 'AAA' to 'AA+', a development which raises concerns that investors will lose confidence in the American economy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on August 7 said that, ‘our growth story is intact and fundamentals are strong. Our markets have the capacity to withstand the negative sentiments affecting the external world,’ Mukherjee said while addressing the function organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

On the sharp fall and partial recovery in stock markets, finance minister said, 'these sentiments in the developed nations affected our markets on last Friday. But we witnessed some recovery already and this is testimony to our capacity for resilience.' On Friday, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex had declined sharply, it fell over 700 points however, it recovered marginally by the end of the day at 17,305.87 points down by 387.31 points. 

India has taken several measures to make its markets attractive, robust and vibrant and would continue to do making it an attractive investment destination for foreign capital, the finance minister said. However, by expressing concern over the high inflation he said, 'Our major challenge in the short-term is inflation, which has implications of sustaining our growth momentum.'

Despite the many steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), inflation remains stubbornly high. It was 9.44 percent in June, much above RBI's comfort level of 5-6 percent. On the tight monetary policy of RBI, he said the measures ‘may end up moderating the growth rate, if they have to be persisted for an extended period of time’. He, on the other hand, expressed confidence that economic growth rate during the current fiscal would match the performance of 2010-11.

The economy grew by 8.5 percent during 2010-11. The RBI expects the economy to moderate to 8 percent during the current fiscal, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) had projected a 8.2 percent growth. India had recorded over 9 percent growth for three years before the economic crisis hit the world in 2008.

© 2025 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×