India may 'wind down' fiscal stimulus next year: Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday said the measures taken by his government helped India brave the financial crisis better than most countries, but it may "wind down" by next year the fiscal stimulus that was launched last December.

"I am happy to say that India has been able to face the global economic downturn better than most other countries in the world," the prime Minister told the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

"Like other countries, we resorted to significant stimulus and we will take appropriate action next year to wind this down. Our medium term objective is to achieve a growth rate of 9 percent per annum, he said.

The prime minister told the high-profile gathering of top business leaders from across the globe that the worst was behind the global economy even as the path to recovery remained long and uncertain.

He predicted a growth of 6.5 percent for the Indian economy during the current fiscal and over 7 percent for the next year, adding a return to high growth required work in many directions, especially in the area of creating jobs and rural uplift.

"Our strategy therefore must aim at sustaining a high rate of growth on the strength of strong domestic demand. We seek to achieve this through a large increase in investment in infrastructure."

ap/dg

( 239 Words)

2009-11-08-12:37:35 (IANS)

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