Jaitley stresses need to check inflation, revive growth

In a Facebook post Sunday after his first week in office, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphasised the need to contain inflation and speed up economic reforms to boost low-cost manufacturing.

"Reviving the growth momentum, containing inflation and altering the pattern of growth to gainful employment is today an overriding priority," Jaitley posted.

"There is a need to boost domestic low-cost manufacturing and hasten the pace of reforms. Price stability and growth are intertwined but may require a different strategy. This will involve fiscal rectitude as a combination of monetary and fiscal policy," he added.

Pointing to the immediate measures required to strengthen the economy, he said: "Short-term (fiscal) disciplining till we reverse the present trend will give us long-term benefits."

He said there is a need to move towards an era of fiscal discipline with objective to reduce fiscal deficit, contain inflation and improve growth rate.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to continue on its inflation-control mode and keep rates unchanged when it reviews its monetary policy Tuesday, its first exercise after the installation of the new union government.

Retail inflation (consumer price index) was at 8.59 percent in April year-on-year, after running near or above 10 percent for almost two years through 2013.

India's economic growth remained below the 5 percent mark for the second year running at 4.7 percent in 2013-14.

"The slowdown in economic growth coupled with high inflationary pressure poses a challenge to the macro economic environment. India can ill afford this trend. This has serious social consequences since slowdown comes with a decade of jobless growth," Jaitley said.