The chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, Dr. C Rangarajan, On Friday said he is confident that fiscal 2013-14 will end with a GDP growth rate of 5.3 per cent.
Addressing a function here, Dr. Rangarajan admiited that the economy is passing through a phase of low growth, but added that 2013-14 would see a better growth performance in comparison to the last fiscal period, when it was pegged at just five per cent.
Current Account Deficit (CAD) is also likely to come down to below three per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal on the back of measures taken by the government such as hiking gold import duty to 10 per cent and restricting gold bar imports, Dr. Rangarajan said.
CAD, which is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, touched a record high of 88.2 billion dollars or 4.8 per cent of GDP in fiscal 2012-13.
Dr. Rangarajan said GDP growth can reach to between seven and 7.5 per cent even at the current investment rate of around 30 per cent provided projects are completed expeditiously.
"To achieve the potential of 8-9 percent, there are certain issues that need to be addressed. We need to have stability in taming inflation, containing CAD and (achieve) fiscal consolidation," he said.