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The Finance Ministry's
chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu today said that India's economy was likely to expand over
8.5% in the March quarter. And considering the encouraging Industrial output (IIP) figures today, the
government official’s forecast could well be possible. Industrial output (IIP)
for the month of January grew 16.7% as against a meager 1% in January last
year.
The Manufacturing
sector grew to 17.9% versus 1% on YoY basis, while growth of the Mining sector was
recorded at 14.6% as against 0.7% in the corresponding month of 2009. The Electricity
sector too grew at 5.6% in January 2010 versus 1.8% a year ago.
Speaking on the IIP
numbers, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said
that two straight months of high IIP growth were “encouraging".
Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman
of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh
Ahluwalia said that India was well-set
to go back to 8.5% growth in the next fiscal year. He added that he expected
foreign fund inflows to continue to be good.
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