New Delhi: Former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh on March 11 warned the Budget would put the economy on "road to disaster" by pushing up fiscal deficit and stagnating growth at five to 5.5 per cent in the coming year.

"We will only be day dreaming if we think the Budget will be able to realise the eight per cent growth target set out in the 10th Plan," the leader of the Opposition said in Rajya Sabha.

Initiating a discussion on the general Budget, he said there is a slide down all along the line in the growth rate since National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government assumed office four years ago.

"The Budget does not inspire confidence within the country or outside," the senior Congress leader said, adding it would not help or move closer in meeting the eight per cent growth target as it contained only "token and half-hearted measures".

Cautioning the Budget could fan inflation in the event of a Gulf war shooting up prices of oil, Singh said financing government consumption by increasing revenue deficit was a clear road to disaster and increasing debt stock.

"Our economy is performing far below its potential. It was more so in the last four years. The gross domestic product (GDP) average for the last four years is no more than five per cent as against the seven per cent achieved when Congress was in power," he said.

With the fiscal deficit hovering around six per cent in the last five years, Singh said the health of the economy was not good and he expected the fiscal deficit to shoot up by 0.5 per cent of the target of 5.6 per cent of GDP.

PTI