Mumbai, Oct 10: Buoyed by the prospects of a strong recovery in agricultural sector, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has revised upwards its growth forecast for the country's economy to 7.4 per cent for 2003-04 from the earlier estimate of 6.5 per cent. The growth in the real gross domestic product (GDP) would be led by 10.7 per cent rise in agriculture and 7.3 per cent in the services sector during the current fiscal, CMIE said in its monthly economic review here today.

However, the industrial sector growth forecast remains unchanged at five per cent for 2003-04, the think-tank said.
The revised growth estimates for the economy essentially reflect the handsome recovery in the farm sector from the drought conditions of the previous year, CMIE said.
In July 2003, the economic think-tank had predicted a real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent for 2003-04, based on 9.7 per cent growth in agriculture and 7.5 per cent rise in value addition in the farm sector as a whole.
Regarding the industrial sector, CMIE said metals and automobile sectors are expected to perform better while the machinery sector is likely to perform a little worse. Bureau Report