Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram has predicted that Indian economy will be the third largest of the world by 2043.
New Delhi, Feb 17/Nationalturk – Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who presented interim budget in Indian parliament on Monday, predicted that Indian economy will be the third largest of the world by 2043.
“In the next three decades, India will become the third largest economy behind United States and China. The fortunes of China and India will have a significant impact on rest of the world. Therefore, Indian Government must be responsible not only to itself but to the whole world by keeping the country’s economy in robust health,” Chidambaram said.
Maintaining that Congress-led government in India has a clear vision of the goals that have been set for itself, he said 10 tasks have been fixed by his government to achieve the goal to be third economic power of the world.
Indian FM favours fiscal consolidation
Referring to fiscal consolidation, Chidambaram said, “A target of fiscal deficit of 3 percent of GDP must be achieved by 2016-17 and must always be kept below that level. The fiscal deficit for 2013-14 will be contained at 4.6 per cent of GDP.”
He said the Current Account Deficit (CAD), that threatened to exceed last year’s CAD of USD 88 billion, will be contained at USD 45 billion. “About USD 15 billion is expected to be added to the foreign exchange reserves by the end of the financial year 2013-14.”
He said since the economy will run a Current Account Deficit every year for some more years, it can be financed only by foreign investment, whether it is FDI or FII or ECB or any other kind of foreign inflow. Therefore, foreign investment must be encouraged.
‘Price stability and growth important’
Stressing for price stability and growth, Indian Finance Minister said, “In a developing economy where the aim is high growth, a moderate level of inflation will have to be accepted. RBI (India’s central bank) must strike a balance between price stability and growth while formulating monetary policy.”
He also called for reforms in financial sector: “Besides, the country must rebuild its infrastructure and add a huge quantity of new infrastructure. Every proven model must be adopted but the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model must be more widely used. New financing structures must be created for long term funds and pooling of investments.”
Write your comments and thoughts below
Asia News/ NationalTurk India News
