Economy unlikely to grow at 9% this fiscal: FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said it would not be possible to achieve the targeted growth rate of 9 per cent in the current fiscal because of rising global commodity prices.

However, he said, inflation would moderate to 7-7.5 per cent from about nine per cent currently.

“Due to volatility in international commodity prices and other supply constraints, it may not be possible to achieve the growth rate of 9 per cent (+/-0.25 per cent) for the current financial year”, Mukherjee said while addressing the probationers of the Indian Economic Service (IES) here.

Indian economy grew by 8.6 per cent during 2010-11.

Referring to rising prices, the Minister said, “the inflation is likely to be in the range of 7 to 7.5 per cent.”

The Reserve Bank has been trying to bring down inflation by increasing repo (lending) and reverse repo (borrowing) rates.