India to touch 8% growth in FY 09: Chidambaram

New Delhi: High inflation rate will not deter India from logging an economic growth of around eight per cent in the current fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here on Thursday.

"I still maintain my view that growth in fiscal 2008-09 will be close to eight per cent," Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA).

As for shoring up the rupee-dollar exchange rate, Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was the regulator and would take appropriate steps if and when needed.

The Prime Minister had on Wednesday said inflation in India would moderate in the coming months even as the country remained among the fastest growing economies in the world, reports IANS.

"There are signs of moderation in the high inflation that we have witnessed recently," he said, referring to the dip in the annual inflation rate in recent weeks from 12.63 per cent to 12.10 per cent.

"We are confident that the situation will improve further in the coming months because of the measures that we have taken," he told a conference of governors and lieutenant governors here.

Chidambaram on Wednesday had blamed gradualism for holding India's progress back in several key sectors such as finance, mining, mineral, sugar and fertiliser.

In order to have adequate resources for the country, Chidambaram had underlined the need for Indian economy to sustain a growth rate of nine to 10 per cent over the medium term.

"That, in short, is the foremost challenge that is faced by emerging India," the Finance Minister said while delivering the Field Marshal KM Cariappa Memorial Lecture-2008 here on Wednesday.

"The outlines are visible in our commitment to pursue economic policies that will ensure high growth—our aspiration is to grow at over nine per cent and reach a growth rate of 10 per cent by 2011-12," Chidambaram said.

Referring to an average growth rate of 8.9 per cent in the past four years, he said that the high growth rate witnessed in recent years should not induce us to believe that this growth rate is sufficient.

"Despite 18 years on the reforms path, the benefits of higher growth have not trickled down to those at the bottom of the pyramid. The trickle down theory itself has come under severe attack," Chidambaram said.