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RBI's 7% growth estimates conservative: FM
January 09, 2004 17:16 IST
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday described the Reserve Bank of India's latest growth projection of 7 per cent as conservative and indicated it would be much higher this fiscal after a "satisfying" second quarter performance.
"The ministry of finance works on the basis that the RBI is a great deal conservative," Singh said and laughed off a suggestion that it meant the growth would be higher than RBI's projection of seven per cent.
The GDP growth during July-September this year "is of great satisfaction for the ministry of finance," he said.
Economy shot up to record 8.4 per cent growth in second quarter of 2003-04, after years of sluggish growth, due to bumper agriculture production coupled with impressive performance by the industry.
Asked about the financial impact of the various sops announced in his mini-budget, the minister said it would cost Rs 9000-10,000 crore (Rs 90-100 billion).