New Delhi, July 27: Finding a ray of hope in buoyant growth in agriculture, The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday revised upwards the economic growth to 6.8 per cent for this fiscal from the earlier estimate of 6.4 per cent with services and industrial sector likely to put up impressive performance. Expressing this optimism, CII Chief Economist Omkar Goswami said though the overall fiscal deficit of the Centre and states was expected to rise to 12 per cent of GDP in 2003-04, it was "sustainable".
"With the industrial growth expected at 6.5 per cent and services at 7.5 per cent, CII has revised the growth forecast upwards. The upper limit has been fixed at 6.8 per cent," Goswami said pointing out that the agriculture growth should increase by 4-5.5 per cent. Though the performance of agriculture was disappointing, Goswami said, "this is all set to improve with the onset of encouraging monsoon in almost all parts of India."

CII had earlier forecast that India's economic growth could be 6-6.4 per cent. Highlighting that the growth in industrial sector is 6 per cent so far in this year as compared to 3.3 per cent in the previous year period, he said, "the economy has begun to see an upswing."
Referring to the increase in inflation, which hovered at 5-5.5 per cent as compared to an average 3.4 per cent in 2002-03, Goswami said it was not a cause for worry as it was largely driven by a rise in primary product prices. Bureau Report