India to grow at 8.3pc in 2011-12: Fitch
April 04, 2011 00:00:00
New Delhi: Credit rating agency Fitch Sunday downgraded Indian economy's growth projection to 8.3 per cent for 2011-12 on account of high inflationary pressures that has forced the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hike key rates, reports livemint.com.
The agency had earlier projected the country's growth for the current fiscal at 8.5 per cent . It, however, kept its projection for 2012-13 unchanged at 8 per cent .
"India's economy grew 8.7 per cent in FY'11 (the year to end-March 2011) on the government's estimate, in line with Fitch's expectation.
The agency revised its FY'12 growth forecast down marginally to 8.3 per cent from 8.5 per cent as inflation is easing less quickly than anticipated," Fitch said in its report -- Global Economic Outlook (GEO).
The wholesale prices rose 8.3 per cent in February 2011 compared to the year-ago period, which is up from 8.2 per cent in January 2011, it added.
"Further tightening from the RBI seems likely, leaving an already slowing economy facing an awkward combination of stubbornly high inflation and more headwinds from further policy tightening," Fitch commented.
Last month, the RBI in its mid-quarterly policy review had raised repo (short-term lending) and reverse repo (borrowing) rates to 6.75 and 5.75 per cent respectively.
This was the eighth time the central bank hiked its key policy rates since March 2010 to fight rising inflation that at present remains much above the RBI's comfort level of 5-6 per cent.