London: Affirming his Government's commitment to continuing economic reforms, an upbeat Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said India's macro-economic fundamentals have never been better and projected a high seven per cent economic growth this year.

Rejecting suggestion that the reform process has been "stop-go" in nature, Vajpayee told those critical about the pace of reforms that they should remember that the country of a billion people "accommodates a diversity of perspectives, interests and needs".

Economic liberalisation has to be implemented with public accountability and social conscience, which "makes our reforms more enduring and stable".

In a wide-ranging interview to London-based economic daily 'Financial Times', he said, "The short-point is that there is no weakening in India's commitment to the reform process. Reforms are now a process of ensuring that ideas get converted into reality."

Since the launch of reforms just over a decade ago, the economy has sustained an annual growth of over six per cent. Despite drought last year, gross domestic product (GDP) growth exceeded four per cent. "This year we hope to touch seven per cent," Vajpayee said, emphasising that he did not think that anyone who had closely followed the economy over the last decade could say economic reform programme in the country "lacked urgency".

PTI