Pranab Mukherjee says Indian economy is expected to grow at 9% India's government is unveiling its annual budget, saying that the economy is expected to grow at 9% in 2012.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the growth rate for the current fiscal year was projected at 8.5%.
He said inflation would decrease over the next fiscal year - the current rate is 8.4%. But food price inflation, at 17%, "remains a concern".
India's prime minister has already warned that India's rapid growth is under serious threat from inflation.
The finance minister announced a 17% increase in funds for social spending, including programmes to tackle malnutrition.
"The country has carried for long enough the burden of hunger and malnutrition," he said.
He also announced substantial increases in funds for health ($5.9 billion, a rise of 20%) and education (520.5 billion rupees).
Mr Mukherjee said a food security bill, which will guarantee cheap food to the poor, would be introduced into parliament soon.
He said the government's performance in handling the economy was mixed.
"While we succeeded in making good progress in addressing many areas of our concern, we could have done better in some others," Mr Mukherjee said.
"Fiscal consolidation has been impressive. This year has also seen significant progress in those critical institutional reforms that will pave the way for double digit growth in the near future."
Mr Mukherjee said the economy had shown "remarkable resilience" despite the food inflation and a current account deficit.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-south-asia-12593755
No comments:
Post a Comment