Amid signals of slowdown, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday maintained the ambition of 10 per cent economic growth, as also set out in the 11th Five Year Plan.

Prime Minister's optimistic remarks during his address on the Independence Day come within days of his Economic Advisory Council projecting a lower GDP growth of 7.7 per cent for the current financial year.

"Our economy must grow at the rate of at least 10 per cent every year to get rid of poverty and generate employment for all," Singh said.

Expressing concern over rising inflation, which has touched 12.44 per cent for the week ended August 2, Singh said the UPA government is taking determined measures to tackle the price rise but "we should avoid doing anything which hurts our growth".

The Reserve Bank of India has taken tough monetary measures to moderate the growth of money supply by increasing the key lending rates to nine per cent.

As a result of these measures, several commercial banks have increased their interest rates and it has started hitting growth in several industrial sectors like automobile.

The Indian economy has grown by nearly nine per cent for the last four years. The 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) has set a growth target of nine per cent for four years reaching 10 per cent in the terminal year.

The Council, which was till recently being headed by former RBI Governor C Rangarajan, had also said that inflation could touch 13 per cent before cooling down to 8-9 per cent by March next year, supported the tight monetary stance.