Economic growth in 2015-16 will be close to eight percent, in view of increasing public investments in roads, railways and resolution of problems of projects that were stuck with banks, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy said on Tuesday.
"Public investments on roads and the railways have gone up. Several things have been done to resolve the problems of projects that are stuck with banks. As a result of all of those, I am inclined to think that this year (2015-16), the growth will not be 7.5 percent as the finance ministry has suggested, but it will be little bit more. It will probably be close to 8 percent," he said here.
Addressing a special session on 'Growth Engines for the Indian Economy: Some Perspectives', organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce, he said: "Double digit growth is impossible until global economies recover."
Debroy also said there were pointless speculations about the veracity of growth figures and national income with the method of calculating the new growth numbers differing from the old one.
"The present series is much more in conformity with the international practice than the old series was and because several things have changed, it is impossible to compare the new series with the old series," he said.
Inflation has gone down and the RBI slashed rates, he said.
"If one is looking at interest rate to provide a kick-start to growth, that required a much sharper interest rate cut than the RBI is in a position to do. Central banks, world over tend to be conservative," he said.