Govt. will announce additional measures to boost economy: Jaitley

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The government is working on additional measures to bolster economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said while maintaining that inflation is well under control. GDP growth hit a three-year low of 5.7 per cent in the June quarter. The minister said an announcement with regard to the additional steps will be made after consulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Jaitley has held a series of meetings in the past few days with some of his ministerial colleagues and senior government officials to take stock of the situation and firm up steps to push up growth. On inflation, Jaitley said it is still within the statutorily fixed monetary policy target of 4 per cent.

“During monsoon period, vegetable prices generally go up. This is spike period. When it is 3.36 per cent in the spike period, it is under control as per the traditional Indian standard,” he said. Retail inflation hit a five-month high of 3.36 per cent in August.

“We have taken note of all economic indicators which are available… the government will take any additional moves which are necessary. I am not in a position to announce today in the press conference. I will be certainly consulting the prime minister before that and when we decide, you will come to know,” he told.