India's 2007-08 agri growth pegged up at 3.5%

India's agriculture sector, which accounts for nearly 17 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product, grew by a healthy 3.5 per cent in 2007-08. This is almost a per cent more than the initially estimated 2.6 per cent.

"The final estimates in agriculture are much higher. It could be 3.5 per cent in the revised estimates," statistics and programme implementation secretary Pronab Sen said on Thursday, a day ahead of release of GDP growth figures for FY'08.

The higher output in agriculture may push up economic growth rate closer to 9 per cent.

In the advanced estimates released on February 7, the agriculture growth rate was estimated at 2.6 per cent and the gross domestic product at 8.7 per cent.

"In the revised estimates, the agriculture growth rate could be higher by 0.7 to 0.8 per cent," Sen said while speaking on the sidelines of a function to release the final results of the Fifth Economic Census.