Adding optimism to the economy’s advanced growth estimate by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman (PMEAC) C Rangarajan has stated that the decline in Indian economic growth has bottomed out and there is probability that gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure for 2013-14 will be revised upwards. PMEAC expects Indian economic growth at around 5.3 percent for the current fiscal.
The CSO pegged economic growth rate for 2013-14 at 4.9 percent which was tad higher than the general expectation of a growth of 4.7-4.8 percent. Rangarajan further added that as per the CSO estimate, the growth in second quarter of current fiscal will be more than 5 percent as Indian economy grew by 4.6 percent in the April-September period. Agriculture sector is likely to add significantly to country’s economic growth as CSO has projected a growth rate of 4.6 percent in agriculture and allied sectors in current fiscal.
Indian economy’s growth slowed down to a decade low of 4.5 percent in the previous fiscal on account of low investment, weak domestic demand, rupee depreciation and global economic turmoil. Rising inflation too has become a hurdle for Indian economic growth as it has been eroding consumers and business confidence in the country.