NEW DELHI: Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said that India’s economy is likely to grow at 8 per cent over the two years on the back of an improved investment climate and several reforms that are in the pipeline.
“The domestic investment climate, which was low, has started picking up in the last two quarters. We are confident that FY19 will be better than FY 18 and I shall not be surprised that in the next few quarters, say after two years, we will cross 8 per cent growth,” Prabhu said.
India’s GDP grew at the fastest pace in seven quarters at 7.7 percent during the January-March quarter of last fiscal, retaining its tag of fastest growing major economy in the world. However, on a yearly basis, it grew at a four-year low of 6.7 per cent in 2017-18.
The minister said that to facilitate the growth momentum, the government is coming up with the New Industrial Policy very soon which will make India ready for the coming digital industrial revolution.
On improving farmers’ earnings, Prabhu said that the government is coming up with an Agriculture Export Policy to ensure that the surplus production gets export.
Prabhu also stated that he would meet his US counterpart soon and raise India’s concerns about the tightening visa regime and its impact on the Indian IT sector.
FDI increased 3% in FY18: DIPP
Just a day after the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2017 had fallen by $4 billion, the ministry of commerce on Friday stated that FDI for the full financial year 2017-18 had increased to $61.96 billiofrom $60.08 billion the previous fiscal. The goverment also said that during the last four years, foreign inflows escalated to $222.75 billion against $152 billion in the previous four.