The Indian Planning Commission is expecting the economic growth rate to marginally move up to 7% in the current fiscal year despite the monsoon casting its shadow on agricultural output, said an official on Tuesday. “I think economic growth during 2009-10 should be between 6.5 and 7% and it will be quite a good outcome,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahuwalia told reporters here. Noting that the recent pick-up in the industrial sector will have positive implications for growth in the current fiscal, he said, “On the agriculture side, the news is less good than what we hoped.” “There is still deficiency in different parts of the country. It is too early to tell its effect on the country as a whole. But of course individual states can have problems,” Ahluwalia said replying to questions on the impact of the bad monsoon on farm sector growth. Noting that growth projections of various think tanks vary between 6.7 and 7 percent, while some indicating more than 7% economic expansion, he said that this would not be bad under current circumstances. Having grown by over 9% in three consecutive years, economic growth slipped to 6.7% during 2008-09 fiscal year, mainly on account of the impact of the global financial crisis on the country.
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