02 February,2010 09:54 AM IST | | IANS
India's economy will grow at 7.5 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal beginning April 1 and will be higher at eight per cent in the following year, a World Bank report released on Monday said.
Hans Timmer, director of the World Bank's Development Prospects Group, told reporters that the projections are based on growth during the first quarter of fiscal 2009-10.
"India has weathered the global crisis relatively well but there are huge inefficiencies in the financial market in developing countries. It is less specialized in manufacturing or natural resources," he added.
India's central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week projected an impressive 7.5 per cent growth for the Indian economy in the current fiscal. It had earlier pegged the growth rate at six per cent for the current fiscal.
Its growth during first quarter in the current fiscal was 6.1 per cent and rose unexpectedly at 7.9 per cent, while the economy grew 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 and 9.1 per cent in 2007-08.
The manufacturing and natural resource sectors have been particularly negatively impacted by the crisis.
While India is optimistic of increase in export growth, the World Bank says "imports will continue to outpace export". "Import volumes are likely to expand and could outpace the recovery in exports," he remarked.
He also pointed out that India's growth will benefit from a firming in external demand, particularly by the resumption of growth in high-income countries, which represent about two-thirds of India's export markets.
India's exports increased 9.3 per cent at $14,606 million (Rs 68,107 crore), while its imports grew at 27 per cent at $24,753 million (Rs 115,420 crore) during December 2009.
