Economy still requires stimulus: FM

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the economic recovery led by a robust revival in industrial growth is still not broad-based and is primarily guided by government stimulus measures.

He also expressed optimism that the fourth quarter growth will be strong, even as in the third quarter economic growth slumped to 6 per cent from the previous quarter high of 7.9 per cent.

Given the current macroeconomic situation, Mukherjee said stimulus would be needed to sustain recovery. This is against the backdrop of the finance minister announcing partial rollback of stimulus in the Budget last week.

“Recovery is still driven by stimulus spending and is not completely broad-based. Keeping the incomplete recovery in mind, the objective is to keep the stimulus until we can see the fruits of economic growth spread across sectors,” Mukherjee said at an event of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Growth can be 10%: Kaushik Basu

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu today said the country’s economy could grow 9-10 per cent yearly from 2011-12. He said the economy could grow 8.5 per cent in the coming year, unless the global economy again turned murky or drought repeated itself.

In a conference call with Kotak Institutional Equities today, he said double-digit growth was possible as saving rates could increase sharply in coming years, as deficits were headed lower.