Govt taking steps to restore investor confidence: President

New Delhi: Attributing slow growth to global and domestic factors, President Pranab Mukherjee today said the government is taking several steps to boost economy and restore investor confidence.

“Both global and domestic factors have affected our growth. We need to address the impact of both. My government has responded to the situation by taking several measures to revive investment activity and investor sentiment,” he said in his maiden address to the joint sitting of Parliament, which heralds the Budget session.

Mukherjee further said: “The past year has been a very difficult one for the global economy …It has been a difficult year for India also. “The Indian economy is currently experiencing slower growth. The real GDP grew by 5.4 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year. This is significantly lower than the average of around 8 percent in the last decade.”

The growth in 2012-13 is expected to fall to a decade low level of 5 percent against 6.2 percent in 2011-12. Finance Minister P Chidambaram is scheduled to unveil budget proposals for 2013-14 on February 28 which among other things would seek to arrest industrial growth and boost economy.

On concerns over fiscal prudence, Mukherjee said, the government has announced a roadmap for fiscal consolidation and would contain the fiscal deficit at 5.3 percent of the GDP in the current financial year.

Chidambaram had already indicated that he would endeavour to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of the GDP In 2013-14. The government, the President said, is also planning to push the Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide subsidised foodgrains to poor as a matter of legal right.

PTI