India can recover faster than China: RBI

India can recover from the global economic slowdown faster than China as its economy is driven by domestic consumption, but the country needs to "get its act together" for this to happen, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Anand Sinha said on Sunday.

Sinha said "confidence issues like the general pessimism and not-so-feel-good factor also affected the economy".

He added: "Both economies (India and China) are affected by the global economic slowdown, but India, being a domestic consumption-driven economy, could recover faster," he said.

"But for that we have to get our act together. Being dependent on domestic economy, we would be less affected by the export sector performance. So, that could be our strength. But we have to get our act together and whatever weaknesses we have (we have) to get around them," he said.

Asked what should be done by India to arrest the slide in growth, he said, "We have to get hold of inflation. If we get hold of it, growth will have better prospect. Once growth takes off, things would be better. Retail inflation in India is in double digits at 10.03%.

RBI has been repeatedly saying that focus of its monetary policy is on controlling inflation.

"We must realise that even if we put our domestic situation on sound footing, what happens in the rest of the world, we cannot be totally immune to that. So, you will not have the same growth rate as we would have had if the world economy was in good shape."

Sinha also said "not-so-feel-good factor", besides the global economic slowdown, for the current domestic situation.

"One reason is the global economic slowdown. That has affected us in the trade channel. We are not export dependent, but exports suffered due to global economic crisis. Apart from trade issues, confidence issues like the general pessimism and not-so-feel-good factor also affected the economy," he said, apparently referring to criticism about the policy paralysis in India.

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