Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the Indian economy will grow by around 8 per cent this fiscal.
"This year, at the Planning Commission, we expect growth rate will be around 8 per cent. We are not expecting 9 per cent in the year 2011-12," Ahluwalia said while speaking at the convocation ceremony at Vijna Jyothy Institute of Management.
He said the economic crisis in the Eurozone has led to revision of growth forecast by many countries.
"We must remember that the current financial year is very unusual year for the world economies. And the euro zone crisis has made virtually every country revise its growth rate downwards," Ahluwalia said.
The Indian economy grew by 7.7 per cent in the first quarter (April-June), the slowest growth in 18 months. The country had registered a GDP growth of 8.5 per cent in 2010-11.
The government had in its pre-Budget survey pegged GDP growth for 2011-12 at 9 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India's has projected 8
"I think next year onwards, we say, an average of 9 per cent," he said. He said inflationary pressure in the economy will moderate by December and come down significantly by end of the current financial year.
Headline inflation has remained above the 9 per cent mark since December 2010. The rate of price rise stood at 9.72 per cent in September this year.
He also drew attention to the latest reports by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where the multi-lateral agency downgraded the growth prospects of all regions on account of high inflation.
In its World Economic Outlook, IMF said that global growth will moderate to about 4 per cent through 2012, from over 5 per cent in 2010.
Commenting on the issue, Ahluwalia said: "The difference is that whereas other countries are growing at one or more than half per cent, for us slowing down means 8 per cent growth... I think the global economy will get back into more normal position," he said.
