By IANS,
New Delhi : Maintaining that India will grow by at least 7 percent this fiscal, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath Monday said the government was considering another stimulus package to pump prime the economy.
Addressing the “Partnership Summit 2009” of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, the minister said the falling inflation rate, now at a little over 5 percent, would help unveil another package.
“More stimulus measures may happen after Jan 31,” Kamal Nath told reporters on the margins of the summit, adding that this will happen after the central bank reviews its monetary policy later this month.
“One of our biggest problems was inflation and this has now been addressed. The latest data shows inflation at 5.2 percent. It will come down further,” he said, adding: “We will also grow at 7 percent this year.”
The government had in December announced a major stimulus package to help Indian industry overcome the global economic slowdown and the recession in some rich nations like the US and Japan.
According to the minister, India continued to attract foreign direct investment like never before despite the global slowdown, and that such inflows had doubled to $18.7 billion during the nine month period ended Dec 31.
“India will continue to be a magnet for foreign direct investment.”
He said his government was also paying attention toward infrastructure and keen on getting all the projects executed, especially those under the private-public partnership model.
“India’s exclusive government-owned infrastructure finance company is being armed to bankroll all additional infrastructure projects of $15 billion over the next 18 months.”