GDP to grow in excess of 7.5% this fiscal, says FM

Says macro-economic indicators are positive, with declining inflation and twin deficits under control

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said economic growth could top 7.5 per cent in the current financial year and macro-economic indicators were positive, with declining inflation and twin deficits under control.

Addressing a mid-career training programme of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Jaitley said subsidy rationalisation, implementation of direct benefit transfer, bank recapitalisation, investment in infrastructure and irrigation sectors were priority areas of the government.

"India's macro indicators are positive, inflation has come down since the new government has taken charge, current account deficit is under control and the government is following the fiscal consolidation road map and will stick to the fiscal deficit target," Jaitley said.

He said that even when globally the economic situation is not that good, India's industrial and manufacturing output were showing improvement.

"Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate will be more than 7.5 per cent this financial year. Indirect tax revenues are showing a positive trend and all these positive indicators point to India's economic revival," Jaitley said. He said the agriculture sector had to be more productive to raise its contribution in to GDP.

"There is scope of increasing GDP by 2 per cent by taking cumulative measures including rationalisation of taxes etc," he said.