New Delhi: Asserting that the nation's economic fundamentals are sound, new Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on July 4 said his top priority would be to address some of the infirmity in regulatory mechanism, instil confidence in investors and take steps to improve the standard of living of the people.

"I do believe the fundamentals are sound and I shall endeavour to strengthen them. We need to address the regulatory mechanism which had shown some infirmity," Singh, who assumed office as the country's 29th Finance Minister, told reporters.

Turning to the economy, Singh said prices are under reasonable control, balance of payments comfortable and fundamentals are sound.

"I have to continue to strengthen the fundamentals and to address some of the infirmities," Singh said adding the 5.4 per cent growh in GDP in 2001-02 was no mean achievement considering the difficult global economic situation and several other adverse factors.

There were, however, certain deficiencies in the fundamentals, which needed to be addressed, he added.

To a question on what he proposed to do about several important economic Legislations that were pending for quite some time, Singh said when Parliament session starts "we will be addressing all those".

PTI