Mukherjee asks global investors to participate in India’s growth

NEW YORK - India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called global investors to participate in the India’s growth, saying the country is poised to expand its growth by nine per cent.

Addressing the seventh India Investment Forum meeting here, Mukherjee said: “India’s risk management systems are dynamic and have kept pace with the demands of the financial sector. The country presents exciting opportunities for global investors. The recovery of the benchmark market indices for India over the last two years has been quite rapid and remarkable and supports this assessment.

“In the short term it is reasonable to expect that the (Indian) economy will go back to the robust growth path of around nine per cent average that it was on before the global crisis slowed it down in 2008,” he added.

He further said that the regulatory and supervisory framework of the securities market in India has been progressively strengthened through various legislative and administrative measures, and is now consistent with the best international practices.

Pointing out the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that was 8.8 per cent in the first quarter (April-June 2010), Mukherjee said, “There has been a revival in investment and private consumption demand, though the recovery is yet to attain the pre-2008 momentum.”

“The country’s financial integration with the world has been as rapid as its trade globalisation, if not more. As a broad measure of globalisation, the ratio of total external transactions to GDP have over doubled from around 47 per cent to nearly 120 per cent in the same period, he added.

After successfully managing the effects of the global slowdown, Mukherjee said: ” We are seeking to make growth more broad-based and ensure that supply-demand imbalances are better managed.

With a view to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism for maintaining financial stability, Mukherjee said: “We in India have decided to setup an apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC).

“Without prejudice to the autonomy of regulators, this Council would undertake macro prudential supervision of the economy, including the functioning of large financial conglomerates, and address inter-regulatory coordination issues,” he added

“We have also decided to set-up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector,” he said.

Saying that thet Indian exports were recording “impressive growth” since November-December 2009, Mukherjee said: “A timely broad-based counter-cyclical policy package, comprising a substantial fiscal expansion along with liberal monetary policy support, proved effective in arresting the economic slowdown and putting the economy on a fast recovery path. (ANI)