Pranab pegs growth at 8.5%, says EU crisis not biting yet

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said India is likely to register a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, playing down the estimate of the International Monetary Fund that recently projected 9.4 per cent growth for 2010-11. HT Correspondent reports.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said India is likely to register a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, playing down the estimate of the International Monetary Fund that recently projected 9.4 per cent growth for 2010-11. India's Worry

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"I am a bit conservative, and am confident that the growth in the current year should be around 8.5 per cent and our target will be to cross the double digit barrier by 2011-2012," he said at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conference on financial inclusion.

Mukherjee said that the Indian economy has shown considerable resilience and the Eurozone crisis would not have any impact here if it remains confined to Greece and a couple of other countries. "But if it assumes larger proportion and dimension, if it engulfs Europe as a whole, I don't know what may happen," he said.

The international community is optimistic in their projections of the country’s growth rate, he said, adding that a robust growth of private investment has been an important driver of growth. Mukherjee also said the stimulus package has paid dividends.