Fall in public, private investment major concern: Rajan

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said he was concerned that the fall in public and private investment in India would

affect the country's economic growth.

"On the growth front, the central concern is with investments. Private investment has fallen back a bit and so has public investment," Rajan said at an event here.

However, despite the slowdown in growth and investments, strong foreign direct investment and some traction in infrastructure development could encourage private investments, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Britain last week that the world's confidence in India is rising is proved by the fact that foreign direct investment into India has increased by 40 percent.

The RBI recently lowered its growth forecast for the country's current fiscal to 7.4 percent, from the 7.6 percent it had projected earlier.

In September, the central bank cut the repo rate, at which it lends to commercial banks, by 50 basis points to 6.75 percent.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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