India's logistics cost will be below 9% of GDP by April next year: Gadkari

India's logistics cost will come down to 9% of GDP by April next year, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

Addressing an event here, Gadkari further said the country's exports will also increase when the logistics cost comes down to single digits.

"Our logistics cost now is 16%. It will come down to 9% by April next year," he said.

However, according to quick estimates of the economic think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the logistics cost in India ranged from 7.8% to 8.9% of GDP in 2021-22.

The road transport and highways minister noted that the Indian economy needs to create more jobs.

While noting that earlier governments did not give enough attention to the rural sector, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is giving more priority to the agriculture sector.

"We need to increase our agriculture growth...We need to increase per capita income in rural areas," Gadkari said.

The minister noted that India is the fastest-growing major economy, and the government is working hard to make it the third-largest economy in the world.

Currently, India is the fifth largest economy globally.