Notwithstanding the acute oil crisis and the resultant inflationary pressures, India will record over eight per cent economic growth and prices will moderate by year-end, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.
At the same time, he made it clear that the inflation management would get the top priority and reasonable growth the second.
"I still maintain that we will grow at a eight per cent plus... we are managing in a difficult year but I think by the end of this year we would be able to bring about a moderation in inflation as well as return a reasonable growth," Chidambaram said.
Admitting that it has been the most difficult of the five years as Finance Minister in the UPA government, he said India has been hit by the global financial, food and fuel crises and anybody who thought the country would not be affected by the global turbulence would be ‘naïve’.
"If our economy is growing at eight per cent, we should not wear sackcloth and ashes and mourn. We should celebrate. Eight per cent growth will still make us the silver medallist in the World Olympics," he said.
Very few countries and hardly any large nation except China are growing at eight per cent, he said and pointed out that eight per cent growth will still be higher than the average rate of 5.8 per cent achieved during the six years of NDA rule.
"We would still have to balance between inflation and growth giving inflation control the first priority and reasonable growth the second priority until the world economy returns to a more stable and more normal path."
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