Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said the government would take more appropriate steps to
revive economic growth even as the statistical office lowered the
GDP growth forecast to 5 per cent.
In the advance estimate of national income, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) drastically cut the gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 5 per cent for the year ending March 31, compared to 6.2 per cent in the previous year.
"The CSO's growth estimate, no doubt, is below what we in
the finance ministry had expected it to be," Chidambaram said while reacting to the data released by the CSO in the national capital.
This will be the worst performance of the Indian economy since 2002-03 when the growth was recorded at 4 per cent.
"We are keeping a watch on the situation. We have taken and will continue to take appropriate measures to revive growth," the finance minister said in a statement.
Chidambaram hoped that
the actual growth would be higher than the projection helped by the economic reform measures taken by the government.
"This projection is based on extrapolation of numbers till November 2012. Since then, leading indicators have turned up, suggesting some hope that we will end the year on a better note. Also, sectors such as trade and transport, which are related to industry, would also tend to get revised upwards, if growth outcomes are better," he said.
Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan also expressed similar view, although he termed the figure "disappointing". "It can be revised upward," Rangarajan said.
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