The Indian economy can sustain an economic growth of 9-9.5 per cent despite the global financial turmoil, even as it hopes for steps by the US to contain the damage, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday.
"We live in an increasingly interdependent world and therefore an international financial crisis could impact on the growth of emerging countries including our own," Manmohan Singh said.
"We sincerely hope US authorities will take appropriate and credible measures to contain the damage caused by the sup-prime crisis in that country," he said at a joint press interaction with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in New Delhi.
"As far as the Indian economy is concerned, we are not affected in the sense our banks don't have lending of that sort, which has led to the crisis," he said, as he referred to the turmoil in the US caused by indiscriminate lending.
"The fundamentals of Indian economy are sound. As of now, we are convinced that notwithstanding what is happening elsewhere in the world, we can sustain the growth momentum of the country at 9 and 9.5 per cent per annum."
The prime minister's comments came a day after an agreement between the leaders of the US House of Representatives and the George W. Bush administration on a $150 billion package to avoid an economic recession in the US.
The package included payments to some 115 million Americans to help overcome the mortgage crisis and new tax breaks for both large and small companies in a bid to step up investments.
Fears of a recession had rocked stock markets across the globe, including India where a key index fell by close to 20 per cent Monday and Tuesday and wiped out some $300 billion in market capitalisation.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
