PM Panel pegs growth at over 7% this fiscal

PM Panel pegs growth at over 7% this fiscal
The Financial Express, April 18, 2009, Page 2

Press Trust of India, New Delhi

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) on Friday said it expects the country’s economy to grow at over 7% in the current fiscal as it has already started showing signs of recovery.

“7% plus is what my 2009-10 overall forecast is...I think it has already started recovering in my own assessment,” PMEAC chairman Suresh Tendulkar said on the sidelines of a conference on broadband here. He further said he expects rebound in the economy after September as the worst was over. “I have been maintaining that the worst is already over, (I expect) good recovery after September,” Tendulkar added.

Asked if the contracting industrial production worried him, he said the revised industrial production numbers were higher than the provisional ones, so it did not bother him much.

Despite three stimulus packages announced by the government, the Indian economy grew by 5.3 % in the third quarter of the last fiscal, its lowest rate in over five years, against a whopping 8.9% a year ago.

In the first nine months of last fiscal, the economy grew by 6.9%. For whole of 2008-09, the advance estimates of Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) pegged the economic growth at 7.1%, which seems a tough task in the wake of dismal industrial growth numbers.

On account of slackening demand hitting Indian trade more than anticipated, PMEAC lowered the country’s growth estimate to 6.5-7% from the earlier estimate of 7.1% for 2008-09. The government came out with three stimulus packages in December, January and in the interim Budget, providing sops to various sectors.