Indian economy is expected to grow at a relatively high and respectable growth rate of 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal. Releasing the review of the economy for 2012-13, the Chairman of Prime minister's Economic Advisory Council, Dr. C. Rangarajan said, the economy had slowed down but the decline appears to have bottomed out. He said, backed by 3.5 per cent Agriculture growth on expectations of a normal monsoon and 4.9 per cent industrial growth the country is set achieve higher growth than last year.
Mr. Rangarajan said, economic growth rate had slipped to decade's low of 5 per cent in 2012-13 mainly on account of the impact of the global financial woes. The action taken by the government to speed up project clearances since September would be visible in the current fiscal. On current account deficit (CAD), Rangarajan said, it is likely to come down to 4.7 per cent of the GDP in 2013-14 from about 5.1 per cent in the previous fiscal. He also said healine inflation is also expected to remain more or less around 6 per cent.
The PMEAC Chairman advocated policy actions for achieving higher economic growth, including speedy project clearances, control over fuel subsidies, reducing current account deficit, and reforms in Agricultural marketing and supply chains. Terming power availability as extremely important for the economy, Mr. Rangarajan favoured boosting domestic coal production to meet energy needs which will also help in reducing coal import bill. He said, net oil imports and gold acount for bulk of the increase in merchandise trade deficit.