Jaitley vows to strike balance between growth & inflation

Says will restore investor confidence

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised to do a balancing act between containing inflation and boosting growth as he took charge of the finance ministry on Tuesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, who “came with an open mind”, reviewed progress on Budget preparations on his first day in office.

“The challenges are very obvious. We have to restore the pace of growth, contain inflation, and obviously concentrate on fiscal consolidation itself,” Jaitely told reporters ahead of a meeting with Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.

India’s economy could not grow over five per cent in both 2012-13 and 2013-14. Retail price inflation was over nine per cent in April. However, the fiscal deficit has been according to the road map given by the previous government and is likely to come down to 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013-14.

Stating that the economy was going through a challenging time, the veteran lawyer said he would work towards restoring the confidence of investors in the economy.

He said he had inherited a “lot of unpaid bills” and a strained economy.

“The mandate which our government has received, has an inbuilt hope in it. The political change itself sends a strong signal to the global community as also domestic investors. I think over the next two months, by expediting decision-making processes, we will be able to build on that,” he said. The detailed policy of the government would be spelt out in the next few days, he added.