GDP likely to clock 7% in 2009-10: CII

GDP likely to clock 7% in 2009-10: CII
The Financial Express, August 24, 2009, Page 2

Press Trust of India, New Delhi

With various segments of the industry showing signs of recovery, a CII-Ascon survey on Sunday said the county’s economic growth could go up to 7% during 2009-10 against 6.7% in the previous fiscal.

Projecting a 6.5-7% growth rate for the current fiscal, the survey said, “the corporate results for the first quarter of 2009-10 showed some incipient signs of stablisation.”

The corporate results available for a sample of 515 companies for the quarter ending June, revealed that net sales growth has declined, while net profit growth has improved. “...as a result of decline in cost of raw materials and power and fuel and moderation in growth of interest expenses the net profit grew strongly by 26% in the June quarter after having contracted by 7.2% in the previous quarter,” it said.

The survey said key segments like fertiliser, cement and two-wheelers have entered in the excellent growth category from higher growth levels during April-June 2009-10 compared to the same period previous year. Sectors reporting excellent growth are industrial gases, automobile like scooters, it said. “The number of sectors in both excellent and high growth category has recorded an increase reflecting that industry is building on marginal signs of recovery,” it said.

Sectors like polyester staple fibre, all three wheelers and nuclear energy shifted from negative to moderate growth during the first quarter of 2009-10. The domestic industry recorded a year-on-year growth of 7.8% in June, marking a 16-month high compared to 5.44% in the same period last year.