India and China voice fears over growth outlook

Chinese and Indian policymakers have promised to take action to boost economic growth on deepening fears emerging economies will suffer a hard landing.

India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said the government must urgently address "reviving growth as quickly as possible" while China's Communist party said it is focusing on fast economic growth amid the worsening global outlook at an economic conference, according to an FT report.

In the past, fears of a hard landing have been dismissed due to high inflation, the increasing consumption trends and the governments' ability to loosen monetary policy in both nations.

Mukherjee said the eurozone debt crisis was at the heart of the slowing in emerging market growth and joined other Asian policymakers in criticising the developed world's notion for austerity packages.

The Reserve Bank of India will meet for a monetary policy review in a few days and it is expected benchmark lending rates may be cut for the first time in two years.

Recent data from India showed economic growth had slowed to below 7% in Q3 while China's economic growth is widely forecast to slow to 8% in 2012.