By IANS,
Kolkata : Economic growth in the second (July-September) quarter of this fiscal would be below 8.5 percent, the government’s chief economic advisor, Kaushik Basu, said Monday.
“The growth of 8.8 percent in the first quarter came with a little help from base effect, so achieving it wasn’t difficult. In the second quarter, a lower growth, however, shouldn’t be disappointing as during this time last year economy started reviving,” Basu said, addressing a seminar organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce here.
Basu said both agriculture and industry would grow slowly in the second quarter.
In agriculture, the bouncing back effect would be felt in the third and fourth quarter of the current fiscal, he said.
“The finance, insurance and banking sectors have not been performing well due to global recession but we expect service sector to grow sharply in the third quarter,” Basu said.
Talking about the fiscal deficit target of the year, he said it could be “little better” than the targeted 5.5 percent.
Basu is hopeful that in the coming 30 years, by 2040, India would be included as one of the bottom ranking countries among the industrial nations.