NEW DELHI, March 10: India’s economy could achieve growth of 10 per cent if the government keeps up reforms and improves the nation’s rickety infrastructure, the Asian Development Bank said on Friday.

Asia’s third-largest economy is growing now at around eight per cent.

“Eight per cent growth is sustainable in the coming five years or more,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said, according to the Press Trust of India.

“If infrastructure is improved and economic reforms are continued, the rate of growth can be accelerated to nine to 10 per cent,” he told reporters in the Indian capital.

The bank president was in India to hold talks with officials and discuss preparations for the ADB’s annual meeting in May to be held in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

The Philippines-based multilateral institution said it planned to step up lending to India because of its high growth prospects and increasing funding needs.

Mr Kuroda said the bank’s assistance to India would total around $2.25 billion in 2006, which would rise to $2.45 billion next year and increase to $2.65 billion in 2008.

In September, the ADB had announced it was ready to raise its lending to India to more than $6.5 billion over the next three years.

The Indian government has said it is aiming for 10 per cent growth in the next few years.

But experts say that the country’s potholed roads, congested ports and frequent power outages are major hurdles to achieving double-digit growth.

Double-digit growth is seen as vital to boost the fortunes of the around 300 million people in India who live below the poverty line.—AFP