Mon, May 24 11:28 AM
India’s inflation is showing signs of moderating and the government expects to achieve a medium term target of 10 percent growth annually, according to a draft speech by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.
Singh said in the draft speech that he will take more steps to battle inflation which is currently nearly 10 percent, along with the help of state governments.
Our medium term target is to achieve a growth rate of 10 percent per annum. I am convinced that given our savings and investment rates, this is an achievable target, the speech draft said. However, its achievement will require determined efforts to increase investment in social and economic infrastructure, enhance productivity in agriculture and give a fresh impetus to the manufacturing sector.
The draft speech comes before a news conference in New Delhi to mark the first year since the Congress-led coalition government was reelected to a second term. It is only one of a handful of press conferences he has given since first coming to power in 2004.
Despite inflation, Singh sees growth in 2010/11 rising to 8.5 percent.
Singh, 77, has disappointed many investors with a slow pace of reforms that investors say are needed to ensure India can sustain fast economic growth and compete with the likes of China.
Despite being freed from the shackles of communist party support in the second term, his government has floundered on inflation, struggled against a Maoist insurgency, and managed its political allies so badly its substantial parliamentary majority dwindled. But the government has also won praise for a sound fiscal policy that has helped protect India from the worst of the global credit crisis. Growth is still one of the fastest in the world and there have been some tentative steps to reforms.
Many investors remain optimistic India eventually will take steps to open the insurance, banking and retail sectors to overseas players, and India still attracts many foreign firms.
