India needs sustained 8% growth, low cost of capital: FICCI president

Mehta took over as FICCI president earlier this month.

"We need to maintain over eight per cent of growth on a sustained basis which will be a challenge. The current year is expected to achieve over nine per cent economic growth as several sectors have already reached the pre-COVID-19 levels," Mehta said in an interaction.

India, he said, will be close to a $3-trillion economy at the end of the current fiscal, and "we need long-term growth on a high base", a news agency reported.

He further said there are positive signs in the economy as tax collections are moving up, and exports are also nearing $400 billion.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is also going up, which is a positive sign for the economy, he said.

Mehta, however, added that the private investment is yet to pick up, and as such, the government needs to keep spending money to prop up the economy.

The president of the industry body also underlined the need for reducing the cost of capital, which, according to him, was high when compared with interest rates in the competing nations.

Mehta is chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever Ltd, president of Unilever South Asia and member of Unilever Leadership Executive.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)