Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Sinha admits growth rate will slip; aims at 5%

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Friday admitted that India's GDP growth will not be "up to the mark" and the economy can "at best aim for a 5.0 per cent growth" in the face of a worldwide recession.

"Growth this fiscal will not be up to the mark and we can at best aim for a five per cent growth," Sinha said in an interview to the Outlook magazine.

He asserted that India's performance of over 4.5 per cent growth rate at a time of worldwide recession was being appreciated in the internationally, but the government faced criticism at home.

"In fact, I'm happy that people are unhappy with our performance. For the first time, people are demanding a high growth rate. It's a major change in the mindset and we have to perform," he said.

Denying the allegation that the NDA government was a "soft government", Sinha said implementation of the reforms were hindered by the lack of national consensus on difficult issues like cutting subsidies and implementing stricter fiscal measures.

"I would like reforms to move much faster, but I also have to learn to live in the real world so I can at best push it as strongly as possible," he said.

On the low FDI inflow, Sinha said, "the best regime for foreign investors is where you have no restrictions, don't have to deal with the government and where there is no noise of democracy."

"India can't aspire to become that kind of regime. But we can certainly improve, we can become more hospitable by cutting down hassles," he added.

Tell us what you think of this report