GDP growth in 2015-16 to be 8-8.5 per cent, double-digit growth soon:FM Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting his first full-year Budget, said growth in the next financial year will rise to 8-8.5 per cent and clock double-digit level in the subsequent years.

"Aiming for a double digit rate seems feasible very soon", he said in his Budget on Saturday.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has recently revised the base year for calculation of GDP growth to 2011-12. As per this, the economic growth rate in 2013-14 is estimated at 6.9 per cent and for 2014-15 at 7.4 per cent.

The Economic Survey had on Friday said that growth will receive a boost from the cumulative impact of reforms, lower oil prices, likely monetary policy easing facilitated by lower inflation, and forecasts of a normal monsoon in 2015-16.

The government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which assumed power in May last year, has initiated a slew of economic reforms, including de-regulation of diesel prices, raising FDI caps in several sectors, and direct transfer of LPG subsidy to beneficiaries.