Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday expressed concern over the state of the global economy, especially the faltering recovery in the US and developments in the Middle East, but said India must and will swim against these adverse tides.

“On the international front the situation is not that positive. The international global recovery is fragile. Even the United States growth rate is faltering,” Manmohan Singh said in his opening remarks during an interactive session with editors of select publications.

The prime minister called the meeting amid criticism that he has hardly spoken his mind in recent months about some burning issues rocking his government.

“We have to swim against this adverse tide and therefore India requires all the energy and all the cohesiveness of our polity to swim against these tides and come out victorious. We can do it.” the prime minister added.

The prime minister said some of the economic events including the sovereign debt crisis in Euro zone countries like Greece and political turmoil in the Middle East, from where India sourced 70 percent of its oil supplies, could pose challenges to the country’s growth story.

But he added that India had the right macro-economic foundation to grow at a rate of 9-10 percent.

“We showed that in 2008 when most people believed that our financial system would also be a victim of the global financial crisis.”

The prime minister said that the country was a large market and if reforms like the Goods and Services Tax could be implemented, trade within the country itself would add to the tempo of growth.

“If we can put in place the Goods and Services Tax legislation and if we can remove barriers to interstate commerce, that itself will create new opportunities internally for accelerating the tempo of growth.”