New Delhi, Nov 09: Industry chamber CII today revised upwards its GDP growth projection to 7.2 per cent for 2003-04, due to excellent monsoons, higher expected farm output and better performance of industry and service sectors. "This upward revision is due to excellent monsoons, higher expected food grain output and agricultural income and significantly better performance of the industrial, manufacturing and services sectors," CII's chief economist Omkar Goswami said.
The chamber has projected a 7.5 per cent growth in both agriculture and services sectors during the fiscal 2003-04.
However, the growth in agriculture sector is not being considered by CII as "optimistic" given the facts that there was a significant reduction in agricultural output because of the drought in 2002-03 and the growth would be over a smaller base.
Referring to the continued growth of the services sector, the chamber said, "For the last ten years, in good as well as bad, the services sector has registered growth in excess of seven per cent and has often crossed 0.8 per cent. Therefore there is no reason why the sector should not grow at least by 7.5 per cent in a year as good as 2003-04."
To maintain the upward trend, CII said focus should be on accelerating the process of economic reforms and to concentrate on infrastructure building.
Bureau Report