Emerging economies can expand at a reasonable pace in the next four to five years even if growth in developed nations is moderate. Speaking at the World Capital Markets Symposium in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said India's economy is forecast to grow by 8.5 per cent this year. Dr Ahluwalia expressed the hope that India's GDP growth rate will go up to 9 per cent in the near future. He also noted that India needed to pump in a lot more into its infrastructure development programme. Commenting on the state of the world economy, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman said that growth was anemic and there were fears of a global slowdown. He noted that growth in the US has been sputtering, but emerging markets were doing well.