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Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi, mentioned that despite the fact that India’s economy is showing a high growth trajectory, the recovery is a slow and halting one.
He mentioned that the FM has set a 9% growth target for the next two years, with the current year’s growth set to 6.5%. He also mentioned that the growth which is being registered during the last few months has been very slow and halting.
"We must grow by 9 percent in two years ... I am optimistic," he said.
He has also expressed his concerns regarding the agricultural growth since the drought has left a negative impact especially on kharif crop, which is expected to stand at 15-16 million tonnes.
He also mentioned the clearing of crucial legislations requires a wider political consensus with enough packages to be introduced for pushing the economic growth to 9%.
"We don't have the required majority in the two Houses (of Parliament) to clear the bills ... a broad political consensus is needed," Mukherjee said.
He said fiscal deficit must be brought down to prudent limits, which is about 5.5 percent by 2011-12. Currently, the fiscal deficit is 6.8%.
