The Hindu : Business : FM: 9 p.c. growth possible

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 01, 2007
ePaper

Business

Business

FM: 9 p.c. growth possible

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Even as the country’s GDP growth dipped to 8.9 per cent in the second quarter this fiscal from 10.2 per cent during the like quarter of 2006-07 mainly owing to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is confident of a near nine per cent growth for the full year.

CSO Q2 estimates

The data on gross domestic product (GDP) growth released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) here on Friday have revealed that but for a good showing by the agriculture and mining sectors, the GDP growth during the July-September quarter would have been still lower. For, while the sluggish manufacturing sector posted a much lower growth of 8.6 per cent as compared to 12.7 per cent in the same period last fiscal, other sectors such as transport and services also witnessed slippages.

As a consequence, the overall economic growth during the first half of 2007-08 also saw a decline to 9.1 per cent as compared to 9.9 per cent during the six-month period of the previous year.

Apparently, the tight money policy clamped by the RBI to reduce consumer demand so as to rein inflation coupled with the rise in the rupee which adversely hit the export sector contributed in full measure to pull down GDP growth during the first half of the current fiscal. Mr Chidambaram, however, exuded confidence on the GDP growth being close to nine per cent for the entire year while attributing the low second quarter growth to the sluggishness in manufacturing.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business