Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday that the economy could grow in double digits by the fourth quarter of the current fiscal in view of the uptick in demand.
His comment comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that more steps needed to be taken to reach double digit growth.
Mr. Goyal said the government had taken several steps to promote the ease of doing business.
“I can actually see before my eyes, that we can actually see it happening by the fourth quarter of this year. It’s not impossible,” he said.
There is a demand uptick in the economy and India is a market place of billions of aspirational consumers, he said. “I think the efforts this government is doing for making easier to do business... let me correct myself, to make it easier to do honest business... And when this country becomes a nation of honest business, then 10% plus growth is a given for us,” he added.
Mr. Goyal said that the government had been very responsible, both in managing the economy and prices.
Fiscal deficit
The government is committed to meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3% for the current fiscal despite this being an election year, he said. There would be no spending cut to meet the target as the government has enough alternative resources for planned expenditure. Fiscal deficit stood at 3.53% of the GDP, broadly in line with the government’s revised estimates for 2017-18.