Montek downplays IMF forecast

Deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday downplayed International Monetary Fund forecast, which has cut down country's 2012 growth rate to 4.9%. Ahluwalia said the country's economy would grow at the rate of 5.5%. Reports published by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Standard & Poor's and a government panel over the past 10 days have provided sobering reminders of the huge challenges faced by the economy still beset by high inflation and dragged down by ballooning current account and fiscal deficits. The IMF sharply cut its economic growth forecast for India for 2012 to 4.9% from an earlier projection of 6.1% growth.