Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said that India has the potential to record economic growth in the range of 8 and 9 per cent in the long term.

The remarks comes even as the global rating agency, Standard & Poor (S&P) said that it is revising outlook for India to ‘negative’ amid macro economic developments and inability of the government to implement reforms at a fast pace.

The agency also said that it might have to downgrade in two years if the situation does not improve in two years and political environment continue to become worse in the country. It says that there is very little progress in economic reforms and GDP growth might fall to the level of 5.3 per cent in 2012-13. The government expects GDP growth to be in the range of 7 per cent.

"My view of India is that it is bullish. India's long-term growth potential is 8 to 9%. In order to achieve this, we have to get our Macro-economic right," said Ahluwalia. He was speaking at the third Clean Energy Ministerial Meeting.

He pointed out that the country recorded an economic growth rate of 6.9 per cent last year and said that growth is taking place in Asia. Meanwhile union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has also said recently that he is confident on the country’s economic growth.

He said that the country’s economy will capitalize on its strong fundamentals and resilience to improve the growth rate. He pointed out that even as the latest economic data indicates that the country’s growth has slowed down, the country still remains the second fastest growing economy in the G-20 after China.