Chidambaram rules out further slip in growth of Indian economy
New Delhi, Nov 16 (ANI)
Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday ruled out apprehensions of further slip in growth of Indian economy amid deepening Eurozone crisis.
Addressing a press conference here, Chidambaram said that Indian economy is still growing at 5.5 per cent, added that "second quarter number will be known by end of this month. And I think there will be a pick up in third and fourth quarters."
Noting that economy was "challenged", Mukherjee said the government would be taking steps to revive growth, which slipped to nine-year low of 6.5 per cent in 2012-13.
"... we are taking number of steps to revive economic growth. Only this morning you have read that Eurozone is formally in recession. We are nowhere near that situation," he added.
On the poor 2G auction, Chidambaram said that there is still time for disinvestment process to start and also the auction process has not ended.
"The EGOM on telecom will meet shortly to deliberate on the remaining auctions, which are the unbid circles from GSM, CDMA and spectrum refarming and on disinvestment process will start. We still have some time left in this financial year and I'am hopeful of getting revenues from somewhere to manage out fiscal deficit," Chidambaram added.
" I' am very sure that there would some net gain to the government from the telecom auctions and how much it will be needs to be calculated and will only be known once all the auctions are over," Chidambaram said.