FM's budget speech captures Indian growth story: Chidambaram

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday received accolades from his predecessor P Chidambaram for exhibiting confidence and upbeat spirit to beat the economic downturn in the interim budget in a difficult year.
    
"Mukherjee's Budget speech captures the exciting story of growth over the first four years of the UPA Government, the determination and resilience with which the Government has navigated the current difficult year and above all, the can-do spirit with which we can look forward to the future," home minister Chidambaram said in a statement here.
    
He said that Mukherjee had before him an unenviable task of presenting an interim Budget at the end of a difficult year on account of the global financial crisis.
    
"It is, however, a matter of  satisfaction that the Indian economy has weathered the global crisis reasonably well and is expected to post a growth rate of 7.1 per cent in 2008-09," he said.
    
Chidambaram noted that the numbers in the interim budget would necessarily undergo change when the regular budget is presented. "What is noteworthy is that the UPA Government continues to repose faith in its policy of 'faster and more inclusive growth', a policy that has brought unprecedented development and a marked rise in welfare for all sections of the society since 2004-05," Chidambaram said.