Annual retail inflation rate eased in March to a five-month low of 4.85 per cent, helped by a drop in fuel prices. “We don’t see, at the moment, scope for nasty upside surprises (on inflation),” Nageswaran said.
Annual retail inflation rate eased in March to a five-month low of 4.85 per cent
With no nasty surprises coming, India’s economy can sustain growth of more than 7% on the back of investment in physical and digital infrastructure, Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said.
“The omens are good for us to continue the steady growth rate” of that pace over the next decade, Nageswaran said at an event hosted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Annual retail inflation rate eased in March to a five-month low of 4.85 per cent, helped by a drop in fuel prices. “We don’t see, at the moment, scope for nasty upside surprises (on inflation),” Nageswaran said.
“There can always be scenarios in geopolitics that can cause inflation to be more than we expect, but at this point the baseline scenario is that inflation gradually converges to the mid-point of the target range.”
The monetary policy committee is mandated to keep inflation within a target range of 2 per cent to 6 per cent and the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, wants to see it at 4 per cent before cutting rates. Nageswaran said the Indian economy was better placed than before to pursue “non-inflationary” growth.
He sees economic growth touching 8 per cent in the last fiscal year that ended on March 31, and expects growth of 7 per cent for the current fiscal year, which began on April 1.
