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Govt aims to cut `03-`04 inflation below 4%
New Delhi, Nov 24: The government is aiming to reduce the inflation rate to less than four percent by the end of this financial year and expects to `very greatly` rein in its fiscal deficit, the finance minister said on Sunday.
New Delhi, Nov 24: The government is aiming to reduce the inflation rate to less than four percent by the end of this financial year and expects to "very greatly" rein in its fiscal deficit, the finance minister said on Sunday.
"Inflation will remain benign at the end of the year at about four percent," Jaswant Singh told the India Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum and industry chamber, Confederation of Indian Industry.
"It will come down further, it should come down further with some of the correctives that we plan to apply between now and February, because even at four per cent I am not very happy that it should be so," Singh said, without elaborating. "Inflation will remain benign at the end of the year at about four percent," Jaswant Singh told the India Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum and industry chamber, Confederation of Indian Industry.
"It will come down further, it should come down further with some of the correctives that we plan to apply between now and February, because even at four per cent I am not very happy that it should be so," Singh said, without elaborating. Wholesale price inflation in India, Asia's third biggest economy, stood at 4.88 per cent in the 12 months to November 8.
The country is expecting a bumper winter harvest this year after the best monsoon in a decade which analysts say will drive down food prices when the new crop hits the market in December.
Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India forecast inflation would be around 4.0 to 4.5 per cent with a downward bias at the end of the financial year to March 2004, revising downward its earlier projection of 5.0-5.5 per cent.
Singh said the country's economic fundamentals were the strongest in the past 52 years although the fiscal deficit remained a worry. "But I do see a greater sense of restraint and I do feel that when I am able to share my figures with you in a few months from now in February you will find that we have been able to correct very greatly the movement of the fiscal deficit."
India's next annual budget will be presented in February.
The government is aiming to cut the fiscal deficit to 5.6 per cent of GDP In 2003-04 (April-March) from the previous year's 5.9 per cent. It has forecast GDP growth at over seven per cent this fiscal year.
Worries over the fiscal deficit erupted in September after India's top court halted the privatisation of two giant oil firms saying the move first needed parliament's approval.
That government had ambitious plan to raise Rs 13,200 crore ($2.89 billion) from asset sales in 2003/04.
Singh said the government would shortly announce some reforms in the country's banking and insurance industry including changes to shareholding norms in private banks.
Bureau Report
"It will come down further, it should come down further with some of the correctives that we plan to apply between now and February, because even at four per cent I am not very happy that it should be so," Singh said, without elaborating. "Inflation will remain benign at the end of the year at about four percent," Jaswant Singh told the India Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum and industry chamber, Confederation of Indian Industry.
"It will come down further, it should come down further with some of the correctives that we plan to apply between now and February, because even at four per cent I am not very happy that it should be so," Singh said, without elaborating. Wholesale price inflation in India, Asia's third biggest economy, stood at 4.88 per cent in the 12 months to November 8.
The country is expecting a bumper winter harvest this year after the best monsoon in a decade which analysts say will drive down food prices when the new crop hits the market in December.
Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India forecast inflation would be around 4.0 to 4.5 per cent with a downward bias at the end of the financial year to March 2004, revising downward its earlier projection of 5.0-5.5 per cent.
Singh said the country's economic fundamentals were the strongest in the past 52 years although the fiscal deficit remained a worry. "But I do see a greater sense of restraint and I do feel that when I am able to share my figures with you in a few months from now in February you will find that we have been able to correct very greatly the movement of the fiscal deficit."
India's next annual budget will be presented in February.
The government is aiming to cut the fiscal deficit to 5.6 per cent of GDP In 2003-04 (April-March) from the previous year's 5.9 per cent. It has forecast GDP growth at over seven per cent this fiscal year.
Worries over the fiscal deficit erupted in September after India's top court halted the privatisation of two giant oil firms saying the move first needed parliament's approval.
That government had ambitious plan to raise Rs 13,200 crore ($2.89 billion) from asset sales in 2003/04.
Singh said the government would shortly announce some reforms in the country's banking and insurance industry including changes to shareholding norms in private banks.
Bureau Report