Experts peg FY10 GDP growth at 6.7-7.4%

However,Yes Bank chief economist Shubhada Rao,is confident of a much better growth rate saying,the economy is likely to grow by 7.4 per cent in the current fiscal.

After growing at 9 per cent in three preceding years,GDP growth slipped to 6.7 per cent in the past fiscal,impacted by global financial crisis.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal,the economy registered a growth rate of 6.1 per cent. However,beating expectations of analysts,the GDP grew by an astonishing 7.9 per cent in the second quarter.

On Saturday,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the economy is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent this fiscal,similar to what was projected by the Reserve Bank.

Echoing his Yes Bank counterpart,HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua too pegged the GDP growth rate at over 7 per cent. The GDP numbers are likely to be between 7.1 and 7.3 per cent,mainly led by industry,Baura said.

“The industrial sector is likely to grow by 9 per cent.

However,agriculture could show a negative growth of 0.6 per cent,” he added.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,while presenting the mid-year review of the economy in December had said that the economy could grow in excess of 7.75 per cent despite the impact of the drought and floods on agriculture output.

The GDP expansion could exceed 7.75 per cent during the current fiscal,helped by high GDP growth numbers recorded during the July-September quarter,the government had told Parliament on December 18,2009.

“The growth outlook for the next two quarters and for the whole year is likely to be in the upper bound of the range (7.75 per cent) predicted; and may exceed it”,Murkehrjee said while presenting the mid-year review in Parliament.