Mr Pranab Mukherjee Finance Minister of India said that the government had to inject INR 80,000 crore into the economy to minimize the impact of the global slowdown.

Mr Mukherjee while delivering a speech at a function organised by a newspaper said that "We had to inject INR 80,000 crores as stimulus package to overcome the crisis, which helped arrest further deterioration of the Indian economy.”

He also said he wants to bring the fiscal deficit down to 5.5% from 6.7%.

Mr Mukherjee said that the plan expenditure rose to INR 245,000 crore from INR 227,000 crore and then to INR 320000 crore and now is at INR 373,000 crore.

(Sourced from FE)