India eyes 8% growth this fiscal despite Q1 slowdown: Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed confidence that India will be able to achieve 8% growth this year, even as he noted that the global economic environment remains an area of concern.

"We will have 8% growth even this year, though the first quarter growth figure is 7.7%," he told reporters here after meeting leading Indian industrialists at an investment forum.

He said a good monsoon could ensure agricultural growth of about "4%-plus" and growth in the manufacturing and service sector "clearly indicates that it will be possible for us to have the growth at around 8% for this year".

Mukherjee said India has projected 9% growth for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) and the country is taking necessary steps to ensure that the momentum continues.

On the outlook for the rupee, he said the Reserve Bank of India is "watching the situation".

"The RBI Governor has made it quite clear that as and when the situation warrants, the RBI will intervene. Right now, there is no such situation," he added.

Mukherjee pointed out that the international environment is an "area of concern", particularly the high ratio of sovereign debt to the GDPs of euro zone nations and the slow pace of recovery in industrialised countries.