The Indian economy will sweep aside the ill effects of the global economic downturn to grow by as much as 8.75 per cent in the coming fiscal year, the country's finance ministry predicted yesterday.
The annual Economic Survey, one of New Delhi's most important policy documents, forecast that Asia's third largest economy would return in the fiscal year beginning in April to the high-growth trajectory it enjoyed before the crisis.
But the report, led by Kaushik Basu, the government's chief economic adviser, warned that double-digit food inflation was a “major concern” and urged serious policy initiatives to address faltering agricultural growth. Farm production fell 0.2 per cent this year in a country where more than 60 per cent of the 1.2bn population earn their living from the rural economy.