India can achieve 8-9% growth rate: Manmohan Singh

Says country is poised to take advantage of globalisation and engage in trade to finance its imports through exports

India can achieve a growth rate of 8-9 per cent provided there is a "national consensus" on methods to take advantage of globalised world, said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose tenure saw the economy registering three years of 9-plus growth rate.

"I think that even though many other emerging economies are not doing too well, India has an opportunity to move towards a growth rate of 6-7 per cent and thereafter to 8 per cent," Singh said while delivering a lecture at Ficci.

He said the country is poised to take advantage of globalisation and engage in trade to finance its imports through exports.

"Today we cannot grow in isolation... India is well placed to take advantage of this situation provided we evolve a meaningful national consensus to move ahead," he said.

Except for India, other emerging economies -- like Brazil, Russia and South Africa -- are not doing well, Singh said, adding the country is posed for a 8-9 per cent growth.

"We are working towards a growth rate of 8-9 per cent. There are opportunities, there are risks. India is currently at least poised to create a milieu in which the growth story of India can be another worthwhile chapter in the evolving global economies," he said.

Indian economy was growing at over 9 per cent for three years before it was impacted by the global financial crisis of 2008. The growth rate fell to sub-5 per cent in two consecutive fiscals -- 2012-13 and 2013-14.

In the current fiscal, the government estimates the growth to be between 5.4-5.9 per cent.

Singh said a meaningful solution to India's problems of poverty, ignorance and diseases can be found only in the framework of rapidly expanding economy.

"There is a broad consensus that we need a growth rate of 8-9 per cent to create 10-12 million jobs every year if we have to conquer unemployment within our life-time," he said.