Finance minister ask FIIs to remain bullish on Indian economy's long-term growth prospects

08 Jun 2011 Evaluate

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to remain bullish on Indian economy’s growth in the long run. The government is committed to take all the necessary steps to achieve a sustainable economic growth rate. The Finance Minister asked FIIs not be bothered by the short-term statistics and assured them of building a consensus on hike on FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) by private insurers to 49% from presents 26% and opening up the multi-brand retail sector for foreign investment. He also said that the government would continue to take investor friendly policies to encourage further growth.

According to finance minister, the long term growth scenario is quite optimistic for the Indian Economy and it will be driven by the next generation of reforms, he said, 'The next generation financial sector reforms have already been initiated which include among other steps, the widening and deepening of the Indian securities markets, liberalizing the policy on foreign capital flows, strengthening the regulatory and other institutional architecture and reducing transaction cost in the securities markets,' The growth of Indian economy is slowing down on account of high inflation and increase international commodity prices, the GDP growth for 4th quarter of 2010-11 were lowest in last five quarters and the overall growth of the economy was marginally below from the government’s estimation. The finance minister accepted that economic growth for the current financial years may be around 8.5%, the same level as of 2010-11, but it would be lower than the estimated 9% by the Economic Survey. However, Finance Minister showed confidence that the fiscal deficit for the current year would be maintained at 4.6& of GDP, as the revenue collection is expected to remain stable. Fiscal deficit for the 2010-11 was 4.7% much below form the target of 5.1% and well below for 6.4% of 2009-10.

On the issue of fuel subsidy, Finance Minister said, it would be difficult to accurately estimate the burden on the government from fuel subsidy in view of the volatility in global crude prices. Nonetheless, he assured them that if there was any additional requirement for the subsidy; funds would be committed with least impact on fiscal deficit.

On disinvestment, finance minister said, it would also be too premature to reach a judgment on the disinvestment programme as only the first two months of the financial year have gone by. Last year disinvestment programme was not pursed fully because of extra revenue generation form 3G spectrum allocation and BWA. Last year, government generated around Rs 23,000 crore from disinvestment, the amount was less than the target of Rs 40,000 crore. In present financial year government has raised Rs 1,145 crore by public issue of Power Finance Corporation.

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

×