Budget measures will help in 6.5 pc economic growth:Rangarajan

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan today said all the measures proposed in the Budget for 2013-14 taken together will help the country register a growth of 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal year.
"I welcome the budget...I believe that all of this measures (budget initiatives) taken together will give us a growth rate of 6.5 per cent next fiscal year," Rangarajan told PTI.
Yesterday, the government's pre-Budget Economic Survey had projected an optimistic 6.1 to 6.7 per cent growth in the next fiscal (2013-14) and had made a strong call for cutting subsidises.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget speech said the fiscal deficit for the current financial year has been contained at 5.2 per cent of GDP, lower than 5.3 per cent as was targeted.

Complimenting Chidambaram for his fiscal consolidation efforts, Rangarajan expressed hope that his budget proposals would stimulate investments.
"The Finance Minister has preserved with fiscal consolidation by showing the fiscal deficit for the next fiscal will be at 4.8 per cent...He has also proposed measures to stimulate investment, the most important of which is investment allowance," he said.