Indian economy likely to slow down, says OECD

LONDON, May 10 (PTI): India's economy is likely to lose pace even as China and the US are expected to see good expansion in the coming months, says Paris-based think tank OECD. The latest assessment comes amid concerns that spiralling inflation and hawkish monetary regime could hurt India's economic growth. A grouping of mostly developed nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s observations are based on Composite Leading Indicators (CLIs), that provide early signals of turning points with regard to economic expansion and slowdown. "The CLIs for Italy, Brazil and India are pointing to slowdowns in economic activity relative to trend," OECD said Monday. The grouping notes that these indicators are pointing to some divergence in the pace of economic activity across major economies. In March, CLI for India stood at 99.4 as compared to 99.7 in February. CLI for India has been marginally falling since November 2010. Last week, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had projected the Indian economy to expand 8 per cent in 2011-12, lower than the budgetary estimate of 9 per cent growth.