India aiming at double-digit economic growth: FM

With economy showing signs of steady recovery, the government today said its aim was to soon break the double-digit growth barrier.

"The advance estimates indicate a 7.2 per cent growth in 2009-10. Exports are also recovering with 11.5 per cent growth in January 2010," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here and noted that the target was to quickly revert to high growth and find the means to cross the "double digit growth barrier". 

India's economy in 2006-07 had expanded by 9.7 per cent, the fastest growth post-liberalisation, and it had yet to touch double digits when the global economic slowdown put paid to this aspiration.

While growth slipped to 9.1 per cent in 2007-08, the economy lost momentum in 2008-09 with GDP expansion slowing to 6.7 per cent due to the impact of the global financial crisis.

However, India was among the fastest to emerge out of the crisis.

"We have weathered the global economic crisis well and Indian economy now is in a far better position than it was a year ago," Mukherjee said on the occasion of 59th convocation of the Panjab University here.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh identified infrastructure as an engine of growth in the coming years and pegged the investments needs in the sector at one trillion dollars, double the amount estimated for the sector in the ongoing 11th Plan period (2007-12).

For attaining double digit growth rate, Mukherjee said there was need for imparting a fresh momentum to the "impressive recovery" in growth seen in the past few months.