Nirmala Sitharaman Interview: ‘Confident that we will manage inflation & keep robustness of growth,’ says FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is confident of managing inflation, while sustaining robust growth.

In an exclusive interview with Rahul Joshi, Editor-in-Chief, Network18, Finance Minister Sitharaman said: “The Chief Economic Adviser has also commented on how 7 per cent is not difficult to achieve. Globally also, the various organisations which look at economies of all the countries like IMF (International Monetary Fund), for instance, has also enhanced their own assessment so upgrading our growth estimate is not just singularly our business, people are saying that fundamentally a lot of activities are happening, the robustness of the economy has not slackened anywhere, it has maintained its buoyance with which things are happening.”

In “The Indian Economy: A Review,” V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser (CEC) and his team pegged the growth rate of the Indian economy to be 7 per cent in fiscal year 2025 after growing at or above 7 per cent in 2023-24. This would get fillip from resilient domestic demand despite risks and uncertainties in the global economic landscape.

“If the prognosis for FY25 turns out to be right, that will mark the fourth year post-pandemic that the Indian economy will have grown at or over 7 per cent. That would be an impressive achievement, testifying to the resilience and potential of the Indian economy. It augurs well for the future,” Nageswaran said in the review.

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‘Confident we will manage inflation & keep robustness of growth’

The Finance Minister in exclusive interview to Network18, further said, “We are confident that on one hand we will able to manage inflation and on the other, to keep the robustness in growth so that it is sustained growth, we have made every effort to look at both growth driving elements and inclusivity driving elements so that nobody is left out from this growth process. Both to contribute and to gain from.”

‘Emerging market economies like India despite the odds are doing their job’

FM Sitharaman further said, “Economy, particularly emerging market economy, like India despite the odds, we are doing a lot of systemic reforms which actually are bearing the results now.”

‘Systemic reforms have continued & emphasis on reforms has given as rewards’

“Systemic reforms have continued whether it was pre-covid – GST and IBC together with very many other reforms like professionalising public sector banks. The emphasis on reform has given us adequate rewards and we will continue doing that,” the Finance Minister said.

‘In Budget we have emphasised on transparency’

She further said, “Even in the Budget, we have emphasied on transparency, emphasied on getting everything on board the Budget process itself rather than keeping it outside of the Budget or underneath the carpet. These are not small steps and that has been consistently done in the last 4-5 years.”

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