NDC meet to discuss the Approach paper for 12th Five year plan
NEW DELHI: “The Approach Paper proposes a growth target of 9 per cent per year. It is relevant to ask whether this is feasible since the economy is currently slowing down,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the NDC meeting here on Saturday.
During the first quarter of the current fiscal the growth slipped to 7.7 per cent from 8.8 per cent a year ago.
In the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) whether India will be able to grow by 9 per cent, PM worries amid the current economic slowdown.
Senior central ministers and state chief ministers attended the National Development Council (NDC) meeting here to discuss the Approach Paper for the 12th Plan.
In his intervention at the NDC meeting, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the debt crisis in Europe and slowdown in the US were impacting domestic economy.
“Renewed uncertainty in the global economy, due to sluggish US growth and worsening of the Euro-zone sovereign debt crisis and weak business sentiments and persisting high inflation at home, poses considerable challenges to the task of making a five-year plan,” he said.
PM said that “the current slowdown is a matter of concern… We must guard against the mood of negativism that seems to have gripped the country.”
The Approach Paper, prepared by the Planning Commission, has projected the Indian GDP to expand by an average of 9 per cent in the next five years (2012-17), up from 8.2 estimated in the 11th Plan.
The economy, which recorded a GDP of 8.5 per cent in 2010-11, is expected to moderate to about 8 per cent in 2011-12, as against 8.75-9.25 per cent projected in February.
