Will end year comfortably with 9% growth rate: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 3 (PTI) Home Minister P Chidambaram Friday
exuded confidence that the Indian economy will expand by 9 per
cent in the ongoing fiscal, as against the 8.5 per cent
estimate made in the Economic Survey, on the back of robust
growth in the first half of FY'11.
He also expressed optimism that India can overtake China
to become the world's fastest growing economy by 2020.
"I think we will end the year comfortably with 9 per cent
growth rate. India can overtake China in terms of GDP growth.
All the indicators are positive. We simply need to get our
act together and focus," Chidambaram, who served as Finance
Minister before taking charge of the Home Ministry, told
reporters on the sidelines of an SME award function.
The Indian economy clocked a 8.9 per cent growth rate in
the second quarter of the 2010-11 financial year. The
government has also revised the first quarter growth figure to
8.9 per cent from 8.8 per cent, translating into economic
expansion at the average rate of 8.9 per cent during the
April-September period.
"In fact, when it is revised for the end of the year, you
will find the first half growth is 9 per cent. Agriculture can
grow at a faster rate (than) it has," he said.
Agriculture grew by 4.4 per cent in the second quarter
this fiscal, as against just 0.9 per cent expansion a year
ago.
Chidambaram's comments came even as Planning Commission
Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said he would stick to
the original 8.5 per cent growth projection.
"The growth rate is very good. There will be base effect
because growth began to pick up last year. I still say 8.5 per
cent. 8.5 per cent is pretty good," Ahluwalia said.
Even Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu had earlier this
week expressed optimism that the growth projections for this
fiscal would be revised in the mid-term economic review to be
placed in Parliament next week.
"We had earlier given a projection of 8.5 per cent. We
will revise it. It is very very likely that it will be revised
a little bit (upwards)," Basu had said.
To a query, he had also said that 9 per cent growth does
not seem impossible in the current fiscal.
"It is not impossible anymore. We are very close to
that," Basu had told reporters when asked whether the economy
would grow by 9 per cent in the current fiscal.
The Economic Survey had projected that the economy would
grow at the rate of 8.25-8.75 per cent this fiscal, which
translates into expansion at the average rate of 8.5 per cent.
Chidambaram said the period till 2020 will be a decade of
job creation. "I think we should dedicate the decade to high
growth, faster growth and as the plan document, says more
inclusive growth, but I think we also need to add jobs
creating growth," he said. PTI