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PM's message at G-20: Shun protectionism

April 1, 2009

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the world economies to continue with stimulus packages till 2010 and avoid all kinds of protectionism, including in the financial sector, to battle the global economic slowdown.

Ahead of the G-20 Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India's fiscal stimulus for the time being is 'adequate'. "With the decline of inflation there is added manoeuvrability in the use of monetary policy which will be utilised when and where it becomes necessary," he added.

"Our growth rate has been affected; we were having a growth rate of 9 per cent until 2007/8, (from when) the growth rate has come down to 7 per cent and maybe lower than that," he said. "We have taken measures. Our fiscal deficit has gone up substantially. We have deliberately allowed it to go up to provide stimulus as a substitute for the decline of exports, for the decline of international capital," Singh said.

Text: PTI

Image: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (L) greets Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outside 10 Downing Street in London on Wednesday. | Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters