Indian economy to outpace 7.3 per cent growth of last fiscal: Arun Jaitley

Hong Kong: Aiming to reap significant benefits from continuing reforms, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said all macroeconomic parameters including fiscal deficit and inflation appear positive and hoped that GDP growth would outperform 7.3 per cent rate of last year.

Addressing global fund managers and institutional investors here, Jaitley said the government is conscious of the fact that it needs large investments and resources and domestic investments were inadequate. "Certainly, I think international investment is going to be a great source of resource for us and with all these economic activities (ongoing and fresh reforms) planned, even in the midst of somewhat gloomier global situation, I think India has the potential to stand out as a relative brighter spot.

"We grew by 7.3 per cent last year and I hope that we are able to outperform our last year's growth numbers," Jaitley said here at the inaugural APIC-India Capital Markets and Institutional Investors Summit. The minister said he was conscious of the adversities that would come in the way and would need to be overcome. "India ended the last year with 7.3 per cent growth rate. We had good fiscal figures, Fiscal deficit is gradually coming down and we are now aiming to bring it down in the next 2-3 years to 3 per cent. "Current account deficit down to 1.2 per cent, foreign exchange reserves are very high, inflation is very much in the control and therefore the macroeconomic indications all seem to be positive. But this is in the midst of a global slowdown.

"This is despite global headwinds that are not helping us and at times are creating adversities, particularly the external factors have impacted our exports and in favourable global conditions we can improve on the growth rate of 7.3 per cent in a significant way," he said. Jaitley further said this interaction with investment industry leaders could not have come at a better time.