7% growth possible in 2014, says Montek Singh Ahluwalia

NEW DELHI: Days after Finance minister P Chidambaram said India's growth could drop to 5.5% in the current year, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia painted a rosier picture and said signals of a turnaround were visible in the Indian economy.

""I think there is some signal of turnaround... In the second half of (the fiscal) we will do better than 5.5%" he said, at the closing session of the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

He did not give a target for the current year but a 7% growth next fiscal year is 'not impossible to achieve'. Even globally, he said the economic environment has been improving.

"The global economic situation is better now than five months ago. European leaders have taken action to avoid the break-up of the euro, while political changes in the US have uncertainties of the world's largest economy."

With both prime minister and finance minister missing from the WEF, it was left to Montek and Anand Sharma to defend the government which came in from heavy criticism over governance, corruption, and slow decision-making though the recent reforms got some appreciation.

Rahul Bajaj, chairman of the Bajaj Group and law minister Ashwani Kumar had a sharp exchange of words on Wednesday over government's functioning. Montek said the recent reforms in FDI indicate that the government intends to move forward, but admitted that implementation of reforms was a slow process.

He sought to pass on some blame on the state governments which according to him were responsible for nearly two-thirds of what needed to be done.