labels: economy - general, governance
Government favours soft interest rate regime news
Our Economy Bureau
12 October 2004

New Delhi: Finance secretary, D C Gupta, yesterday said that the government was in favour of a `benign'' interest rate regime. "Any hike in rates will hit growth, and that we will not like to have,'''' Gupta said. However, he added that it was primarily the task of the Reserve Bank of India to decide on the interest rate regime.

On GDP growth, Gupta said the economy should grow by 6 to 7 per cent this fiscal, given the trend of the first quarter GDP growth of 7.4 per cent.

Inflation trends would depend largely on external factors such as rising crude prices. "Inflation has to be watched. It depends on external factors like hike in oil prices.''''

Gupta added that the government does not plan any further duty cuts to check inflation.

He refused to indicate whether the government proposes to introduce specific duty on petroleum products instead of ad valorem rates currently.


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Government favours soft interest rate regime