P Chidambaram: Infrastructure can push growth
Yet to make a medium term forecast of a moderate growth, says Chidambaram
New Delhi: The global economy has shown signs of strengthening over the past few months and the emerging markets like India need to increase investments, especially in infrastructure, to revive growth, finance minister P. Chidambaram said on Sunday.
Speaking at the first business session of the 47th annual meeting of ADB Board of Governors in Astana (Kazakhstan), Mr Chidambaram stressed upon the need to increase resources of the Asian Development Bank for lending, an official statement said.
“Policies to revive growth in most emerging markets, including India, will have to be rooted in increasing investments, particularly in infrastructure. As most emerging markets are resource constrained, it would be necessary to have recourse to foreign savings for investment,” he said.
There is, however a need to ensure that the flows to emerging markets are broadly stable, he said, adding that the best option would be investment flows with a preference for FDI, followed by a hierarchy of other sources weighed against the cost of such dependence.
“Global recovery appears to have strengthened in the recent months. However, we are yet to reach a stage where we can make a medium term forecast of a moderate growth,” he said.
According to him, in the emerging markets that have large net exports, the slowing of growth is due to weakness in advanced economies and there is a need in these markets to rebalance to domestic sources of growth.
U.S. stimulus cut won’t hit india: Ministry of Finance
New Delhi: Allaying fears that the withdrawal of fiscal stimulus programme in the US will impact foreign investments into India, a finance ministry report has said the country is an attractive destination on its own and has remained the third most preferred nation for FDI since 2010.
“Notable liberalisations in FDI policy and in several sectors, a globally competitive workforce, a rapid GDP growth rate and rapidly growing market are the main drivers of foreign investment in India.
“All these are reasons enough to allay fears that the FDI inflow would be reversed with the lifting of the quantitative easing (QE) measures in the USA,” the report said.