Economy gains momentum; set to grow by little over 7%: PM

Bhubaneswar, Dec 27 (PTI) With growth expected at little
over seven per cent this fiscal, Indian economy is slowly
gathering momentum that is essential to fight poverty, Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday.

"The momentum (of growth) was ...interrupted by the
global economic crisis in 2008 and we slowed down to 6.7 per
cent in 2008-09 and are likely to achieve 7 per cent or a
little more in 2009-10," Singh said, inaugurating the Annual
Conference of the Indian Economic Association (IEA)here.
The economy expanded by an average of 8.5 per cent
between 2003-04 and 2008-09.
Singh said sustained economic expansion was required to
improve the standard of living.
"Our poor are still too poor and we need to do much more
to improve their standard of living...To this end, the economy
has to grow fast enough to create new job opportunities at a
rate faster than the growth of labour force," the Prime
Minister said.
India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said on
December 23 that the economy could grow by 7.5-8 per cent,
revising the earlier estimates of the government and the
Reserve Bank.
The Prime Minister said reforms have not led to any
adverse impact on the country's poor but emphasised the system
of governance needs to improve.
"Overall, greater emphasis has to be laid on reforms of
the systems of governance so as to reduce the scope for
corruption," he said.(MORE) PTI AAM
MYR


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