Planning Commission favors lowering interest rates to boost investment

15 Jan 2013 Evaluate

For attracting investments and reversing the declining trend of economic growth, Planning Commission made a case for lowering interest rates. While addressing an event, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said 'lowering interest rates and reduction in fiscal deficit is important for stabilizing the growth of the economy'. The statement comes on the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is scheduled to announce its monetary policy review on January 29, amid industry demand for lowering of interest rates to spur growth.

With regards to investments, Ahluwalia said, investment in infrastructure is quite critical for economic growth as it determine India’s ability to attract both domestic and foreign investments and make it more productive. Increase in domestic savings is helpful to finance the infrastructure projects as reducing the fiscal deficit is important for long term sustainability of investment strategy. 

By adding further he said, ‘investment inflows have significantly declined by about three percentage points since 2007-08 in the aftermath of global economic crisis. We need to reverse this trend to achieve high economic growth and for this we need fixed investment of 35 percent by the end of the (current) plan period, from the level of 34 percent in 2007-08.’

On the current account deficit (CAD), he said investment can get back only by savings or else the CAD will increase exponentially and CAD of 4.2% is not sustainable for growth. CAD - the difference between exports and imports after considering cash remittances and payment - is expected at around 4.2% of GDP during the 2012-13 fiscal. In July-September quarter, it widened to a record high of 5.4% of GDP, or $ 22.3 billion.

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