Govt not sacrificing growth: Montek

"When the government tries to bring inflation down, it is not sacrificing growth. It is laying the foundation for a sustainable medium and long term growth", he said while expressing optimism that the country would achieve a growth rate of 8 per cent during the current fiscal.

"Anybody who recommends that we should continue inflation is actually sacrificing growth. High inflation will kill medium term growth prospects", Ahluwalia added.     
He further said, "If you have to choke off excess growth in two months in order to have good growth in two years. I don't call that as sacrifice of growth".

Ahluwalia's statement comes amidst fears that government and the Reserve Bank were trying to check price rise through various fiscal and monetary initiatives that will have adverse implications for the industry.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said earlier this year controlling inflation was a priority for the government, but containing price-line did not mean growth would be sacrificed.

Stressing that it was important to control inflation, he said, "If we can achieve 8 per cent growth I would be quite satisfied. We have not seen anything so far to revise that estimates".

Referring to the six-year low industrial growth of 3 per cent in March 2008, he said, one month data was not an indication of the growth for the whole year. There is lot of variation in the monthly data, he said, adding that the revised picture could be quite different.