Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday described the Reserve Bank of India's latest growth projection of 7 per cent as conservative and indicated it would be much higher this fiscal after a "satisfying" second quarter performance.

"The ministry of finance works on the basis that the RBI is a great deal conservative," Singh said and laughed off a suggestion that it meant the growth would be higher than RBI's projection of seven per cent.

The GDP growth during July-September this year "is of great satisfaction for the ministry of finance," he said.

Economy shot up to record 8.4 per cent growth in second quarter of 2003-04, after years of sluggish growth, due to bumper agriculture production coupled with impressive performance by the industry.

Asked about the financial impact of the various sops announced in his mini-budget, the minister said it would cost Rs 9000-10,000 crore (Rs 90-100 billion).