Quiet and Soft


the rate of growth of production in the private sector will slow down during the year. On the contrary, and I emphasise this point afresh, the prospect of a third good year of agricultural production should mean that, with the continued generation of mass purchasing power, the demand for consumables will show a further substantial increase. Indeed, Mr Desai, in his budget speech, has made the point that rising levels of investment can be "achieved without inflation only on the basis of a growing volume of production of essential consumer goods". In turn, the improvement in agricultural productivity has to be accompanied by "greater efficiency and expansion of capacity in consumer goods industries". As such, with the possibly substantial improvement in output by consumer goods industries, and in view of the impact it will make upon the demand for the output of the basic industries, I expect that the banking system will, during 1969, be called upon to shoulder considerable responsibility in financing of such ventures. There is no doubt that the banking system is equipped to discharge that responsibility efficiently and swiftly.