India will grow at 8.5 pc now, 9 pc next year: PM

NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said India braved the worst global slowdown in decades better than most economies and would grow at 8.5 percent this fiscal and 9 percent next year.

“We were among the few countries that recovered quickly from the after-effects of the global economic crisis,” the prime minister told the HT Leadership Summit here, adding that India, although affected, handled the crisis better than others.

“Last year we grew at 7.4 percent, this year I am confident that the economy will grow at 8.5 percent, and next year, we hope to return the economy to a sustained growth of 9-10 percent,” the prime minister added.