By NNN-PTI,
Washington : With global trade expected to contract in 2009 for the first time since 1982, the World Bank has projected the Indian economy would grow at 5.8 per cent in 2009 from 6.3 per cent estimated for 2008.
The impact of the global financial crisis has spread to formerly resilient developing countries, the World Bank said, adding that the slowdown is most pronounced in India and Pakistan among South Asian countries.
However, the Indian economy would revive somewhat to expand by 7.7 per cent in 2010, the World Bank said in its report, Global Economic Prospects, 2009, released on Tuesday.
As far as the world economy is concerned, global GDP growth will slip from 2.5 per cent in 2008 to 0.9 per cent in 2009, the report said.
The report also showed that Pakistan would retain its growth rate at last year’s level of 6 per cent in 2008.
However, it would halve in 2009 to 3 per cent and would go up slightly to 4.5 per cent in 2010.
“The slowdown in growth is most apparent in India and Pakistan (in South Asia), where industrial production fell sharply, and the momentum of production for South Asia has recently declined from a peak of 12 per cent in April 2008 to a decline of 2 per cent in August,” the World Bank said.
Even after partial recovery in industrial growth, India’s industrial output grew by just 4.9 per cent in the first half of this fiscal from 9.5 per cent last year.
RBI Governor D Subbarao said in Kolkata today that the central bank’s growth projection for the country may be lowered from 7.5-8 per cent for this fiscal.