Pranab Mukherjee on importance of developing economies as "growth drivers"

Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the developing and emerging economies would continue to play the role of growth drivers for the world.

Mukherjee, who was addressing the BRICS finance ministers here, said: "Developing countries and emerging economies are expected to continue as growth drivers for the world economy."

Expressing confidence in India's economic health, Mukherjee further said that India's underlying growth fundamentals remained firmed despite adverse conditions prevailing in the external environment.

"As far as India is concerned, despite adverse conditions prevailing in our external environment, we are reasonably confident that the underlying growth fundamentals remain firm.

"We are intent on ensuring that the process of fiscal consolidation gains further momentum, with monetary policy remaining vigilant in dealing with inflationary pressures," said Mukherjee.

Highlighting the importance of the upcoming G20 summit in Mexico, Mukherjee told the BRICS ministers that a credible and ambitious should be put in place to bring back the world economy on the path of recovery.

"We need to ensure that the plan adopted by our Leaders is both credible and ambitious enough to put the global economy firmly on the path of recovery over the short run, and promote strong, sustainable and balanced growth and job creation over the medium to long-term," he said.

To achieve this target Mukherjee put forward three points to be focused upon.

Firstly, the need to develop a framework to assess the progress made on G20 commitments.

Second, concerns over the global employment scenario, especially the falling labor participation rate and growing youth unemployment in advanced countries, need to be addressed.

The third point, the need to step up efforts to support investment in the real sector, and especially in infrastructure, to help revive global growth and support demand and job creation. (ANI)