'Economy can touch 8% growth level with good monsoon'

With the good monsoon projection, the Indian economy can touch 8% growth in the current fiscal, said a top official of the Finance Ministry.

“This year, the projections for monsoon are good. With a good monsoon, I think India will be able to reach 8% growth in the current year,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters here.

Das said, the fiscal deficit and the revenue deficit during 2015-16 were fully contained and targets were achieved.

India’s economy grew by 7.9% in March quarter to consolidate its position as the fastest growing major economy, leaving behind China, with a five-year high growth rate of 7.6% for 2015-16 on robust manufacturing growth. The growth was 7.2% in 2014-15. Das said that the overall macroeconomic numbers and fiscal parameters of the country are “very robust”. The fiscal deficit during 2015-16 was contained at 3.9% of the GDP, in line with the Budget projections.

Revenue deficit showed significant improvement due to increase in capital expenditure of the government. The deficit which was 3.2% of GDP in 2013-14 improved to 2.9% in 2014-15 and 2.5% in 2015-16.

The secretary said the Plan expenditure at Rs 4.71 lakh crore in 2015-16 was higher than the Budget estimate of Rs 4.65 lakh crore. The capital expenditure has exceeded the Budget estimates for the first time in five years.

 Disinvestment

Das also said that the disinvestment department has a “roadmap” for diluting government stake in public sector enterprises, and it will be implemented.

The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 56,500 crore for the current fiscal. Of this, Rs 30,000 crore will come from minority stake sale and the remaining Rs 26,500 crore from strategic stake sale.