New Delhi, Jan 3 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who Friday declared that he will step down after the next general election due by May this year, said reviving economic growth would be his priority in the remaining five months.
Addressing a media conference here, Manmohan Singh said a sustained high growth has been among the major achievements of his decade-long tenure as prime minister of Asia’s third largest economy.
“I have done reasonably well, the growth process has been sustained despite global crisis, despite Eurozone crisis,” the prime minister said.
When asked what he would like to do in the remaining few months of his tenure, Manmohan Singh said the focus would be on reviving growth.
“Five month is still a long period to revive the growth impulses of this country,” the prime minister said.
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slumped to 4.6 percent in the first half of the current financial year, the worst performance in over a decade.
Economic growth is likely to remain below five percent in the current fiscal, sharply down from an average over eight percent growth registered in the first eight years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh.