Chairman of PM's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan today suggested that Coal India should enter into arrangements with the private sector to increase coal production in the country.

"Coal India can use the private sector as an agency to mine coal and then buy it at agreed prices to boost production as a temporary measure", he said here.

One of the reasons for high current account deficit (CAD) was huge imports of coal by the power utilities, he said at the MCC Chamber of Commerce.

Going by trends, coal production was now increasing and would have a sobering influence on CAD, he said adding this will also be helped by less rise in oil prices and decline in gold imports.

"Financing CAD will not be a problem at the moment", he said adding this would help stabilise the rupee at the current level.

Rangarajan said the economy would grow by 5.5 per cent to six per cent in the current fiscal. The country needed to grow by eight to nine per cent to graduate from a low-income to a middle-income nation, he said.