Manmohan Singh says India to grow at 6.3 percent despite financial crisis

Pittsburgh, Sep 26 (ANI): Addressing the world leaders at the G-20 Summit here, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh reiterated that despite drought India expects to grow around 6.3 percent in 2009-10 and then recover to 7 to 7.5 percent growth next year

"Despite a drought, which will affect agricultural production, we expect to grow by around 6.3 percent in 2009-10," Dr. Singh said at the plenary session of the G-20 summit.

"The relatively strong performance is partly due to the strong stimulus measures introduced in the second half of 2008-09 that have been continued in the current financial year," he added.

Dr. Singh also said that the current global financial crisis had affected developing countries as well.

"The fact that some of us have fared relatively well does not mean the crisis has not affected the developing world significantly. The drop in the growth of developing countries indicated the extent of such impact. An estimated 90 million people in the developing world are likely to be pushed below the poverty line," he said.

Making a case for the developing countries at the G-20 summit here, Dr. Singh made a strong pitch for defending the stimulus measures, cautioning the G-20 countries from a premature exit.

Dr. Singh said that problem must be tackled at it root by ensuring the quickest possible return to normalcy in the global economy.

"We must certainly plan for any orderly exit when the time is right, but the time is not right now. The global economy may be bottoming out, but it is not expected to reach three percent growth until the end of 2010," the Prime Minister said. (ANI)