SME Times News Bureau | 02 May, 2014
In a Facebook post
Sunday after his first week in office, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphasised
the need to contain inflation and speed up economic reforms to boost low-cost
manufacturing.
"Reviving the growth momentum, containing inflation and altering the
pattern of growth to gainful employment is today an overriding priority,"
Jaitley posted.
"There is a need to boost domestic low-cost manufacturing and hasten the
pace of reforms. Price stability and growth are intertwined but may require a
different strategy. This will involve fiscal rectitude as a combination of
monetary and fiscal policy," he added.
Pointing to the immediate measures required to strengthen the economy, he said:
"Short-term (fiscal) disciplining till we reverse the present trend will
give us long-term benefits."
He said there is a need to move towards an era of fiscal discipline with
objective to reduce fiscal deficit, contain inflation and improve growth rate.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to continue on its
inflation-control mode and keep rates unchanged when it reviews its monetary
policy Tuesday, its first exercise after the installation of the new union
government.
Retail inflation (consumer price index) was at 8.59 percent in April
year-on-year, after running near or above 10 percent for almost two years
through 2013.
India's economic growth remained below the 5 percent mark for the second year
running at 4.7 percent in 2013-14.
"The slowdown in economic growth coupled with high inflationary pressure
poses a challenge to the macro economic environment. India can ill afford this
trend. This has serious social consequences since slowdown comes with a decade
of jobless growth," Jaitley said.