The Indian
economy should have grown at 7.5 percent in 2009-10 and a tad faster
than 7.2 percent expansion predicted officially on the back of a strong
rebound in exports, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here Thursday.
'We have had a strong recovery in exports in the past few months. We
expect the economy to have grown 7.5 percent, not 7.2 percent,' Sharma
said during an interactive session on foreign investment policy hosted
by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Sharma predicted 8.5 percent growth for this fiscal, in line with the
official forecast.
The minister's comment came on a day when the latest commerce ministry
statistics said India's exports rose 34.8 percent in February to $16.09
billion -- the fourth straight month of rise after 13 consecutive months
of decline, since October 2008.
But the decline during the first seven months of the previous fiscal
resulted in an overall decline of 11 percent during the 11-month period
to February, down to $153 billion from $172 billion in the same period
of the previous fiscal.
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