Dismissing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments on the state of <g data-gr-id="56">Indian</g> economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said an economy growing at <g data-gr-id="57">fastest</g> pace in the world cannot be 'fragile'.
"In a global slowdown situation, to have the fastest growth rate in the world certainly does not make Indian economy fragile," he said.
The Finance Minister said the fourth quarter (January- March) GDP growth of 7.5 per cent and 7.3
per cent for the entire financial year 2014-15 <g data-gr-id="55">indicate</g> that the economy is in "recovery mode".
The silver-lining in the GDP number is the manufacturing sector which registered 8.4 <g data-gr-id="29">per cent</g> growth in the fourth quarter and 7.1 per cent for entire 2014-15.
"Manufacturing and services indicate that we have a potential to grow at 8-9 per cent and beyond," Jaitley said. The fourth quarter GDP data "gives us a broad idea of how the Indian economy is moving. It is absolutely clear that the economy is in a recovery mode", he added.
While the fourth quarter GDP growth rate at 7.5 <g data-gr-id="32">per cent</g> was better than China's 7.4 per cent, making India the fastest growing economy in the world, for the full fiscal it was a tad lower than the Chinese growth rate.
The Minister further said that with improvement in agriculture and exports, India could achieve 9 per cent growth rate.