Real GDP likely to grow at 8.5%
Real GDP growth for fiscal 2006-07 registered a higher-than-estimated level of 9.6% but inflation remained a concern and posted a higher-than-targeted (5.5%) 5.9%, the Survey noted.
The Survey said though the annual policy statement for 2006-07 had placed GDP between 7.5% and 8%, the actual performance for the year was much higher.
Broad money supply or M3, comprising currency with public, deposits with banks and other deposits with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), that were expected to expand 15% grew 21.3% by the year-end. Non-food credit was at 28.4%, against the original assumption of 20% at the beginning of the fiscal.
Despite the hardening trend in interest rates and the surge in inflation during the year under review, the industrial sector was buoyant and led to the surge in non-food credit.
The high capital inflows also pushed up RBI’s net foreign exchange assets (NFAs), leading to a surge in liquidity and an upward revision of repo rates to 7.75%. For the current year till December 2007, the spurt in capital inflows saw an increase in liquidity that got absorbed under the market stabilisation scheme (MSS) taking the outstanding balances to Rs 1,59, 717 crore. The sterilisation entailed a cost to the exchequer by way of interest.
The budgetary provision for this was increased to Rs 8,200
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