India eco growth faster than China in 2012:WB,FM plays it down

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) The World Bank has pegged Indianeconomic growth to take over Chinese by 2012 on purchasingpower parity (PPP) basis, but New Delhi has played down theprojection by the multi-lateral agency saying the country isnot in race with anyone.

In its latest report on Global Economic Prospects, theWorld Bank has projected Indian economy to grow by 8.7 percent in 2012, faster than 8.4 per cent expected for China.

However, these projections are based on PPP basis, whichmeans that purchasing power of currencies are taken intoaccount for measuring economic growth.

As such, these projections are not the traditional wayof measuring the economic growth.

Reacting to the World Bank projections, Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee said, "India is trying (to achieve highgrowth rate), but I am not going to compete with anybody."

He said every country is trying hard to overcome theeconomic crisis and reach a desired level of growth.

"Nothing wrong in it," he added.

He said India wants to record double-digit growth withmoderate inflation and fiscal prudent policies.

"We want to reach double-digit growth, at the same timehaving modest rate of inflation without indulging in fiscalprofligacy, that means with prudent fiscal management,"Mukherjee said.

Indian and Chinese economies are not comparable. The sizeof Indian economy is USD 1.3 trillion and Chinese economy isworth USD 5.5 trillion.