Updated on Friday, July 03, 2009, 23:49 IST

New Delhi, July 03: Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Virmani today said India does not have a "god-given right" to get back to high growth automatically without addressing the problems thrown up by the economic slowdown on the fiscal, financial, energy and investment front.

"Please do not be complacent... even though we have survived the short-term shock fairly well, please do not assume that this is some kind of a god-given right that we will have high growth," Virmani, who is the principal author of the Economic Survey that prescribed bold economic reforms, told agencies in an interview.

However, the economy will grow at 7 per cent, plus or minus 0.75 per cent, in the current fiscal, if the US economic downturn bottoms out by September and monsoon is normal, he said.

But to sustain long-run high growth, certain problems need to be addressed, he added.

Broadly, there are four issues that need to be attended to for the economy to return to a high growth path for a longer period, say, some decade and not for five to six years, he said.

On the fiscal front, he said there was no way out but to expand the fiscal deficit for filling the gap created by the fall in export and private demand in the local economy.

The stimulus packages by way of increase in government expenditure and cut in taxes to boost private and investment demand widen fiscal deficit, he said.

Bureau Report