NEW DELHI: India’s premier Manmohan Singh played down hopes yesterday for the nation’s once booming economy, terming a plan for achieving eight percent annual growth an “ambitious” goal.
Singh’s muted expectations came after the government this month cut its growth forecast to just under six percent for this financial year — putting Asia’s third-largest economy on track for its worst performance in a decade.
“Achieving a target of eight percent growth, following less than six percent in the first year, is still an ambitious target,” said Singh, 80, in an unusually downbeat message ahead of the new year.
He was speaking to state chief ministers reviewing India’s 2012-2017 economic plan which aims for eight percent annual average growth. Despite liberalisation steps, India runs on five-year plans based on the old Soviet Union’s model.
The Congress government’s “first priority must be to reverse this slowdown,” said Singh, who is keen to get the economy moving again before the 2014 polls. “We cannot change the global economy but we can do something about the domestic constraints which have contributed to the downturn,” he said, warning India can no longer “follow a business-as-usual policy”.
AFP
