India could regain 8 to 9 pc growth rate: PM

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GUWAHATI, Apr 20 (PTI): In the backdrop of a grave global financial crisis, India's economic growth is expected to be in the range of 6.5-7 per cent in the current financial year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said here in the country's north-eastern state of Assam.
Singh said the economy grew by close to 7 per cent in 2008- 2009 after registering an average expansion of 9 per cent in the previous four years.
Earlier in March, multilateral agency IMF has projected India's growth to moderate to 5.25 per cent in 2009-10, while pegging it at 6.25 per cent in the past fiscal.
The World Bank had also scaled down India's economic growth rate forecast to a dismal four per cent for 2009-10. It also said that the recovery could be in as late as 2010-11. However, India is still among the two fastest growing economies in the world.
Responding to questions on the global meltdown and its impact on India, the Prime Minister said the world is faced with a "grave" economic crisis that arose because of mishandling of the financial system by the major developed countries.
"From financial crisis, it became a credit crisis. It has affected a large number of developed countries," Singh told reporters here.
The crisis has affected India's exports, as well as capital and credit flows to it, he added.
"I expect the world economy will recover, at least partially, by September this year. And if that happens, we can hope to go back to the growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent which has been the growth rate of India in last five years," Singh said.