SME Times News Bureau | 01 Sep, 2010
Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has hailed the first quarter economic growth of 8.8 percent, stating that this performance was encouraging.

"More encouraging has been the 12.4 percent growth in the manufacturing sector. It is expected this manufacturing sector growth will generate more jobs," Mukherjee told reporters after the release of the GDP data for the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal.

The Finance Minister noted that agriculture had gone through a difficult phase, but had made a positive contribution of 2.8 per cent for the quarter under review

Mukherjee expressed the hope that the GDP growth will be higher in the coming quarters. He pegged his overall growth expectations for the entire fiscal at 8.5- 8.75 percent. "I have always stuck to that it will never be less than 8.5-8.75 percent. It should not be less than that," he said.

On whether the Reserve Bank of India needed to do further monetary tightening to tame inflation, Mukherjee noted that the central bank's actions will depend on inflationary pressures and expectations.