Mumbai, July 11: Country’s economy is likely to grow by 6.5 per cent in the year to March 2004, up from 4.3 per cent in the previous year, thanks to an expected jump in farm output, a leading independent forecaster said on Friday. "The agricultural sector is expected to recover with a growth of 7.5 per cent in spite of the delay in the monsoon and the sluggish growth in sowing operations in June," the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said.
India's weather office said on Wednesday the southwest monsoon was likely to be normal with rains in July, crucial for crop sowing, expected to be 102 per cent of the long-period average.
The monsoon is the lifeline of the Indian economy as the farm sector accounts for 25 per cent of GDP and employs about seven of every 10 people in the country of more than a billion people. Bureau Report