Momentum of rowth rate sustained: FINMIN

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) The Finance Ministry today lauded the CSO figures on GDP growth, saying that the UPA government will continue to "adopt and implement" policies to enhance savings and investment.

"The quick estimates reveal that the momentum of growth witnessed in 2004-05 has been sustained in 2005-06 and improved upon, "a finance ministry release said here.

The growth rate of GDP at factor cost has been revised upward from 8.4 per cent (estimated in May 2006) to 9.0 per cent."The upward revision, in our view, reflects better coverage and estimation, resulting in an enhancement of the estimate of domestic product by Rs 9,193 crore in 2005-06," the release said.

It said the economic division in the ministry has "carefully analysed" the quick estimates of national ncome for the year 2005-06 released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on January 31.

The release said the UPA government has adopted policies which are intended to boost savings and investment. ''It was encouraging to note that there has been a rise in both savings and investment.'' According to the quick estimates, the savings rate was 31.1 per cent in 2004-05 (revised from the earlier estimate of 29.1 per cent). The savings rate in 2005-06 increased to 32.4 per cent.

Correspondingly, there was a rise in the investment rate. In 2004-05 it was 31.5 per cent (revised from the earlier estimate of 30.1 per cent), and increased to 33.8 per cent in 2005-06.

"The rise in the savings rate and the investment rate augurs well for the future. The UPA government will continue to adopt and implement policies which will enhance both savings and investment," the finance ministry said.

UNI