Economy to grow by 5.5-7.5 pct: CEA

Courtesy : Financial Express

As RBI projects Indian economy to grow by six per cent this fiscal, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Virmani said the growth rate would be between 5.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent depending on when the US economy bottoms out.

The economy would grow in the range of 6.5 to 7 per cent this fiscal in case the US economy bottoms out by September this year, otherwise, it would expand in the range of 5.5 to 6.5 per cent, Virmani told reporters.

"... if you want the precise number of the optimistic scenario it can be 7 per cent, plus, minus 0.5 (per cent). It depends on what happens abroad. That's the main point because the external uncertainty is the main source of uncertainty here," he said.

"I can say categorically ... that even in this pessimistic scenario (After World Bank, IMF and ADB estimates of the GDP growth rate), India's growth would be higher than any of those three have indicated. It would definitely be higher than that," he said adding that about 7 per cent growth rate also depends on normal agriculture.

IMF projected Indian economy to grow by 5.1 per cent in 2009-10, the World Bank forecast growth rate of four per cent, while ADB has pegged the country's GDP expansion rate at five per cent.