Economy unlikely to grow at 9% this fiscal: Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said it would not be possible to achieve the targeted growth rate of 9% in the current fiscal because of rising global commodity prices.

However, he said, inflation would moderate to 7-7.5% from about nine per cent currently. "Due to volatility in international commodity prices and other supply constraints, it may not be possible to achieve the growth rate of 9% (+/-0.25%) for the current financial year", Mukherjee said while addressing the probationers of the Indian Economic Service (IES) here. Indian economy grew by 8.6% during 2010-11. Referring to rising prices, the Minister said, "the inflation is likely to be in the range of 7 to 7.5%." The Reserve Bank has been trying to bring down inflation by increasing repo (lending) and reverse repo (borrowing) rates.