Acknowledging that 7 per cent growth is inadequate, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has sought the Opposition cooperation to improve the investment climate.
The Government, he said, was keen to step up growth while tackling inflation which is perilously close to double digit, even though food prices have shown a declining trend over the last seven weeks.
Replying to a debate on inflation, Mr Pranab Mukherjee said price rise was linked to international situation but made it clear that the Government was not in a position to increase subsidy to address the price situation.
Contending that economic growth has been high during the UPA rule, he admitted that 7 per cent GDP was “not adequate” but refused to accept the Opposition contention that it was all-time low.
“There is no link between inflation and growth. We shall have to contain inflation, we shall have to go for higher growth... please don’t say that nothing has happened,” he said.
The Finance Minister said the Government would endeavour to bring down inflation to 5-6 per cent from 9.73 per cent in October.
NDA and Left parties were not satisfied with his reply and staged a walkout, with Leader of the Opposition, Ms Sushma Swaraj, saying that arguments offered by Mr Pranab Mukherjee were stale, oft-repeated and did not offer any relief to common man.
The economy registered a growth of 7.3 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. The annual growth is projected to be 7.5 per cent down from 8.5 per cent recorded in 2010-11.