New Delhi: Brushing aside fears of slowdown of industrial production/growth rate and fluctuating Indian currency, a confident Finance Minister P. Chidambaram stressed in Lok Sabha on Thursday that the country will bounce back from the present economic stress. He also emphasized that there is no need for any pessimism about the economy.
Chidambaram said all the States, except two, were growing at over 5 per cent — much higher than the overall economic growth, which was under 5 per cent.
“Rupee will correct itself” due to various measures of correction taken by the government, he said.
Participating in the discussions in the Lok Sabha on the supplementary demands for grants (general) for 2013-14 and the Appropriation Bill, 2013, he said: “Yes, the economy is going through a period of stress now. The growth has declined. The first quarter's growth has been disappointing although given the trends and given the developments in the first few months of this year, we expected that growth will decline…” However, he added that there is no need to believe that all was “gloom and doom”.
The Minister said the Government was committed to meeting the tough fiscal deficit targets for the current financial year. “This is a year of fiscal consolidation... I have repeatedly said that the 4.8 per cent which we have estimated will be the fiscal deficit is a red line. The red line will not be crossed,” he said.
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