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| China's yuan policy not to hit India: Pranab |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Jun 23, 2010, 01:07 IST |
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 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said China’s decision to make its currency, the yuan, flexible would not hit the Indian economy adversely.
Replying to a question, the finance minister said he was hopeful China would follow the policy, keeping in view the interest of the world economy. He was speaking at an interactive session with Indian and American business leaders here yesterday. The session was organised by industry body CII to formulate the issues to be discussed in the Joint CEOs’ Forum in Washington on Tuesday.
Mukherjee also said there was a need for close cooperation with the US, not only in finance and trade but also in other areas like agriculture, insurance, health and education. To prevent any deceleration in growth in the current global situation, it was necessary to generate domestic demand by injecting stimulus equivalent to 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009-10, while striking a balance between demand for external and domestic sectors.
The finance minister said he had partially rolled back certain stimulus packages during the current financial year, but was not in favour of a complete rollback and full exit at this stage, the as global financial crisis was not over yet. He said India was on the path of fiscal consolidation and wanted to bring down its fiscal deficit to 4.1 per cent by 2011-12.
India’s Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, Hero Honda MD Pawan Munjal, Infosys MD S Gopalakrishnan, Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Apollo Hospitals MD Preetha Reddy were also present on the occasion.
At a dinner hosted by Shankar, Mukherjee said business leaders from India should explore the new areas of mutual cooperation such as agriculture research, health, education, including medical education, research and insurance with their US counterparts. He stressed the need for heavy investment in the Indian infrastructure sector.
Addressing a gathering of senior executives from financial services firms at the Institute of International Finance, he said despite the continuing global economic crisis, India would be able to achieve a growth rate of more than 8.5 per cent during the current financial year. He endorsed the prediction made by the International Monetary Fund that India would achieve 8.8 per cent growth in 2010-11.
He acknowledged that fiscal consolidation, controlling inflation and containing oil prices were three big challenges for the Indian government.
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