India Victim of Eurozone Crisis: Minister Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (NNN-IRNA) -- India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said India is a victim of the Eurozone crisis which is hurting export growth.

India victim of Eurozone crisis: Pranab Mukherjee "We are not the makers of that (Eurozone debt) crisis but we are a victim of that crisis," he said at the ET Awards function in Mumbaui, pti reported.

Talking about the domestic scenario, the Finance Minister said the economy is facing problems of inflation and rupee depreciation, among other issues.

"We have problems of high inflation, rupee depreciation, we have problems because our growth may not be as projected, we have problems whether it would be possible for us to maintain the fiscal deficit target...," he said.

Persistent high inflation, coupled with rupee depreciation in the recent times, could derail the government's fiscal deficit target of 4.6 percent of GDP this fiscal.

Referring to India's exports growth, which slowed to 10.8 percent in October from 36.5 percent in the previous month, he said, "It is bound to happen despite diversification of destination and products."

With demand slowdown in US and Europe, which account for India's 30 percent exports, the government is focusing more on Africa and Latin American markets.

On the possibility of providing aid to debt-laden Eurozone economies, Mukherjee said let the members in the region first come out with some kind of package.

“Let them (Eurozone nations) come out with a package by themselves and then the question of supplementary finance through international organizations could be thought of and we would also like to make our own contribution in that process," he said. --NNN-IRNA