Manmohan Singh Wants FDI in Retail after March: Bloomberg

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expects to succeed in his push to open the domestic retail market to foreign companies after regional elections conclude by the end of March, according to an interview published by Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The government earlier this month suspended plans to open India's $450 billion supermarket sector to foreign firms such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, backtracking from one of the government's boldest reforms in years in the face of a huge political backlash.

In the interview, Singh also reiterated that India's economy would return to a long-term growth rate of 9 percent as inflation slows and the government extends market-opening policies, Bloomberg reported.

We will stay the course, Singh was quoted as saying. We will make India an eminently bankable and creditworthy economy.

Separately, Singh said at an event in New Delhi: We have set for ourselves an ambitious target of 9 percent annual growth in GDP in the 12th Five Year Plan (ending March 2017).