New Delhi: Inaugurating the 35th India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2015 at Pragati Maidan, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said there was a need to provide impetus to domestic manufacturing, and ‘Make in India’ campaign along with focus on Asia, Africa and Latin America as newer export markets will help sustain the challenges from the external sector.
Asserting that the Indian economy has shown resilience in the face of challenging global trends, he said it has the potential to attain a size of $10 trillion over the next two decades.
“We are a $2.1 trillion economy and have the potential to be a $10 trillion economy over the next two decades provided we are able to give fillip to manufacturing and innovation,” Mukherjee said.
“Our economy has admittedly withstood the challenging global economic scenario of the past few years. Despite the economic slowdown afflicting major economies in the world, India has remained largely insulated,” he said.
Barring a below 5% growth in one year (2012-13), India’s economy has shown resilience, the President said.
Mukherjee said that the economic scenario is again looking up, with 7.2% economic growth in 2014-15.
“It is expected to improve further as other macro economic indicators show substantial improvement,” he said.
Inflation is within control and industrial performance is also showing signs of revival, he said adding fiscal consolidation measures are in place and India should be able to meet the target of three% fiscal deficit by 2017-18.
“The external sector should not be a cause of concern despite a not so encouraging export performance last year.
Slowdown in global economic activity also finds reflection in declining import with a substantial reduction in our import dependence on oil,” Mukherjee said
India’s current account deficit (CAD) has improved and has reduced from 1.7% of GDP in 2013-14 to 1.4% of GDP in 2014-15.
PTI