‘Nine per cent GDP growth rate in 2011-12 difficult’

New Delhi: Concerned over high headline inflation, Planning Commission today raised doubts over clocking the targeted 9 per cent economic growth in the current fiscal.
“We may not hit 9 per cent (economic growth rate in 2011-12). 6 per cent is the rate of inflation which we should be willing to accept this fiscal,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters here.
The government and the Planning Commission had earlier projected a growth rate of 9 per cent during 2011-12, up from 8.6 per cent in the previous fiscal.
Referring to rise in headline inflation to 8.98 per cent in March from 8.31 per cent in February, Ahluwalia said, “Inflation has been a concern. It has not come under control as much as I had hoped. There is need to use fiscal and monetary policy to get rid of supply constraint wherever they exist.