India’s economy will have grown by 7.2 percent this fiscal year, according to the latest forecast by the Indian government. The prediction puts growth back to pre-global financial crisis levels.
“This is quite encouraging. The government should now gradually withdraw stimulus and the process of fiscal consolidation must start by this year’s budget,” said Dr Chakravarthi Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council.
The estimate, for the 12 months to the end of March 2010, was used by the national statistics office to determine next year’s budget, due at the end of this month.
Indian Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla says he expects the actual numbers to be even better on the back of good yields in agriculture: “What we normally see when the final numbers come out for the third and fourth quarters is that there would be an upward bias, and we are sure the same is going to happen this time as well.”
