India economy unable to keep pace with 8.1 percent target

Indian Prime Minister Manmomhan Singh Monday said that his Government is unable to keep pace with 8.1 percent growth rate target set by India's Planning Commission.

The commission had set the target in the present tenth Five- year plan, ending on March 31, 2007.

"The growth target for the tenth plan was set at 8.1 per cent and the mid-term appraisal shows that it has been averaging 6.5 per cent in the past three years. Our government aims to achieve 7. 8 per cent in the last two years of tenth plan 2005-07, Singh told the meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) here this morning.

The two-day NDC meeting has been convened to take stock of the state of economy and decide on corrective steps to put it on a higher growth trajectory of eight per cent in the eleventh plan.

The meeting would discuss the recommendations made during the mid term appraisal (mta) of the tenth plan, a performance review of all sectors of the economy in the first three years of the tenth plan.

Source: Xinhua