India finmin: fiscal stimulus has to be maintained

MUMBAI, Nov 3 - India has to continue with its fiscal stimulus and is confident of attaining it medium-term fiscal targets, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

He said non-farm credit growth remained an area of concern and said banks have been told to enhance credit growth.

At its quarterly monetary policy review last week, India's central bank held key policy rates steady but began withdrawing emergency liquidity support measures which were put in place last year to protect Asia's third-biggest economy from the global downturn. [ID:nDEL485971]

The central bank cut its forecast of banks' lending to 18 percent for the fiscal year ending March 2010 from 20 percent and urged banks to step up lending while preserving credit quality. (Reporting by Rajkumar Ray; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan and John Mair)