'7.6% growth for India in 2015-16 very, very significant'

New Delhi: Terming the projected 7.6 percent growth for the current fiscal as "very, very significant", Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das today expressed the government's commitment to work towards boosting economic growth.

The statement assumes significance as it comes just a week before the presentation of Budget 2016-17 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha.

It is expected that government will focus on growth by increasing public spending as private investment stays muted due to an uncertain global environment.

"The world economy today is experiencing the kind of the volatility which we never saw earlier. There was time when we used to say what is going to happen next week in Europe or in some part of the world we do not know. But today, we have come to a position we do not know what is going to happen the very next day in which part of the world.

"We live in a global village. Therefore, whatever happens in any part of the world affects us because India over the last several years is getting increasingly globalised," he said in the finance ministry's YouTube channel.

However, he said, India remains a bright spot amid the global slowdown.

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) in its advance estimate of its national income for 2015-16 projected a growth rate of 7.6 per cent, the highest in the last 5 years.

"So, there is uncertainty, there is volatility all around. I think amid all these problems, amidst when we are in a sea that is in turbulence, India is remaining afloat.

"Not only remaining afloat, this year as CSO has already given out we are expecting a growth of 7.6 per cent which can be considered as very good, given the circumstances. We were used to 8 per cent or 9 per cent growth, but given the problem which the world is encountering, I think 7.6 per cent growth is very, very significant," he said.

He further said the government is committed to not just maintaining growth, but improving it.

"Growth is important because growth leads to job creation, growth leads to more opportunities, more economic activities which lead to more development," he said.
India grew at 7.2 per cent last fiscal.