Economy Will Grow Despite US Turmoil: PM

The Indian economy can sustain an economic growth of 9-9.5 per cent despite the global financial turmoil, even as it hopes for steps by the US to contain the damage, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Jan 25. We live in an increasingly interdependent world and therefore an international financial crisis could impact on the growth of emerging countries including our own, Manmohan Singh stated. As far as the Indian economy is concerned, we are not affected in the sense our banks don''t have lending of that sort, which has led to the crisis, he added, as he referred to the turmoil in the US caused by indiscriminate lending. The prime minister''s comments came a day after an agreement between the leaders of the US House of Representatives and the George W. Bush administration on a $150 billion package to avoid an economic recession in the US.The package included payments to some 115 million Americans to help overcome the mortgage crisis and new tax breaks for both large and small companies in a bid to step up investments.