The Confederation of Indian Industry said the fourth-quarter growth figure of 4.8 per cent was “disappointing, but on expected lines”.
Reacting to the development, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General, CII, said “With no visible pick-up in any key levers of the economy, the situation remains grim,” adding that “while the fiscal deficit situation would not allow Government expenditure to go up, every means needs to be explored for raising consumption and investment demand.”
He said CII had been advocating further easing of the monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India, with a reduction in repo rate and the cash reserve ratio CRR.
Echoing the views of other industry chambers, Banerjee said, “Procedural easing is required to get stalled investment projects into the implementation stage.”
He said the Cabinet Committee on Investments headed by the Prime Minister has been looking at clearing tranches of Rs 1,000 crore-plus projects. However, a similar thrust is required for projects at the State-level as also for sub-Rs 1,000 crore projects in the manufacturing sector.