Finance Minister says India not staring at recession

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has claimed that India is nowhere close to recession and that the country has successfully weathered the global economic storm.



Chidambaram said that the only major impact of the ongoing global economic crisis has been on inflation, which will take some time to moderate. He, however, admitted that economic crisis will have a fallout on the growth rate this year.

"India is nowhere near a recession. The growth estimate for first quarter of 2008-09 is 7.9 per cent and it will be good for the second quarter as well. Nevertheless we must be prepared for a temporary slowdown in Indian economy. Our effort will be to minimise the impact of crisis in the economy and return to the growth trajectory of nine per cent," Chidambaram said after meeting a group of economic editors in New Delhi on Monday.