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Govt wants interest rates to fall: Sinha

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said on Thursday the country's interest rate regime is soft and the government wanted rates to fall.

"We want to create a situation where interest rates can generally come down," Sinha told reporters.

But interest rates were the domain of the Reserve Bank of India, Sinha said, and declined to say anything about a possible rate cut.

Sinha said it was too early to talk about the fiscal deficit level, but said the government would try to meet the target of 4.7 per cent of GDP for 2001-02 (April-March).

"It will be our endeavour to keep the fiscal deficit as close to the target as possible," he said.

Sinha said he expected inflation to remain under control.

"So far inflation has been under control and I hope it will remain so. I don't see it going beyond five per cent," he said.

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