The next five-year plan is going to maintain its target growth rate at 9% despite recent events pointing to apprehensions of a downturn in western economies. The planning commission is due to firm up its approach to the twelfth plan (2012-17) on August 20 in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In an earlier meeting, the planning commission had proposed a range of 9-9.5% for the next plan; however it has decided to stick with 9%. The ongoing eleventh plan had also aimed at an average growth rate of 9% during its inception. However, it had to be scaled down to 8.1% during the mid-term appraisal of the plan primarily due to the adverse impact of the global economic downturn.

The approach paper on the twelfth plan will suggest continuing the trend of expenditure adopted by the UPA government - to prioritise allocations to the social sector like health, education, agriculture, water and infrastructure. Land acquisition, coal linkage and financial condition of state power companies, skill development and inflation are likely to be discussed.

"The priority for resource allocation will continue to be the social sector and infrastructure. Other issues like land acquisition, skill development and availability of coal have gained prominence, "said a planning commission official.