Maintaining 9 pc growth impossible: Montek

The government is doing everything that it should do. "You will see the inflation coming down in some months,'' he said without saying to what level it would drop, Montek says.
Hyderabad: It would not be possible for India to maintain 9 per cent growth rate this year due to the growing inflation. However, the medium term growth target for the next five years for India can average around 9 per cent despite losing some steam this year, according to the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
"I would be happy even if the growth rate is about eight per cent,'' he said adding that putting brakes on the monetary policy for a couple of quarters would slow down the economy for some time but it would bounce to average 9 per cent over the next five years.
The government is doing everything that it should do. "You will see the inflation coming down in some months,'' he said without saying to what level it would drop.
Ahluwalia said the current inflation was a result of the changes happening globally, particularly the rise in fuel prices. He hoped that the oil prices would "stabilise at a reasonable level".
He was in the city to inaugurate a two-day seminar on `Growth and development in the lagging regions of India', organised by the Administrative Staff College of India and the World Bank.
Admitting that some states and regions were not on the same development plank as others, he said there was a need for specific anti-poverty programmes for immediate result.
Similarly, there was a need to build infrastructure and connectivity to promote growth as many places in the north eastern states were lacking these facilities.
Even among the developed states like Maharashtra, there were still places that were far from being developed, he said citing Vidarbha as an example.
Though new economies were evolving, the focus must be on agriculture for providing large scale employment. The constraints in making agriculture more profitable should be identified and addressed at a local level.