Rangarajan blames delayed projects for growth rate decline

C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the prime minister, Friday blamed failure to complete projects on time for the "steep decline" in the country's economic growth.

"Economic growth has in fact declined much more steeply than what is warranted by the decline in investment. This might be because projects have not been completed in time or complimentary investments have not been forthcoming," Rangarajan said at the 48th annual convocation of the Indian Statistical Institute here.

The EAC chairman pointed out non-availability of critical inputs like coal and power as one of the reasons for the delay.

Observing that constitution of Cabinet Committee on Investment should be beneficial to growth, Rangarajan said: "A return to higher level of savings and investment can take us back to the very high levels of growth which we had seen earlier."

"Provided we take appropriate actions to speedily complete projects, even the existing level of investment rate should enable us to grow at 7.5 percent in the short run.

"Raising the savings rate through fiscal consolidation has become imperative. Besides improving the productivity of capital is the crux of the problem," he said.

Rangarajan, also the ISI governing council chairperson, said the Indian economy made "swift and sharp" recovery from the global financial crisis and despite a relatively low growth rate, the structural changes in the economy over the past two decades have provided resilience to the economy.