Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that global slowdown will impact India's growth prospects, but expressed hope that inflation will start moderating from December.

While addressing the annual conference of Economic Editors in New Delhi, Mr. Mukherjee attributed both the economic slowdown and rising inflation to global economic problems, especially the rising price of crude oil in international markets, which has remained high at around USD 105 a barrel.

He said despite monetary measures taken by the Reserve Bank since March, 2010, headline inflation has remained stubbornly close to the double-digit mark. It was 9.78 per cent in August.

Referring to the growth prospects for the current financial year, the minister said it would be impacted by the global economic slowdown. However, he maintained that the Indian economy growing at 8 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent in 2010-11, will still be a “reason for celebrations”.

Government has expressed confidence that it will achieve 8.5 to 9 percent growth in the medium to long term. Talking about the meeting of finance ministers ahead of the G-20 meeting later, he said that developed economies of the Europe and US have been told to take corrective measures so that developing countries are not affected very badly.

The Finance minister added though he will not be happy with it but even then India will be one among the 10 fastest growing economies of the world. He added that India is expected to achieve 8.1 percent growth this fiscal.