October 19, 2006	Thursday	Ramazan 25, 1427

NEW DELHI, Oct 18: India, the world’s second-fastest growing major economy after China, set an ambitious target on Wednesday of attaining 10 per cent annual GDP growth within next five years.

The announcement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former World Bank official, came less than a month after India beat most forecasts reporting 8.9 per cent growth in the first quarter to June (March-April).

“The 11th plan (2007-2011) is going to be historic in many ways,” Singh told a meeting of the national policy-making Planning Commission.

“This is the first time since the planning process began that we will be aiming for a growth rate of 10 per cent in the final years of the plan,” he said.

India’s economic plans hark back to the era when the country followed communist-style five-year programmes.

The country registered growth of 8.4 per cent for the financial year to March 2006.

Economists have said that India must achieve double-digit growth to be able to significantly improve living standards in the country of 1.1 billion people where at least a quarter of the population live below the poverty line.

Singh said the ambitious target was achievable on the back of buoyant foreign capital inflow, moderate inflation, brimming foreign exchange reserves and a comfortable current account deficit, pegged at 3.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.—AFP