The economy continued to expand at over 9% in the first half of FY07, marked by an industrial resurgence that overcame a subdued agricultural growth but there was a modest rise in inflation as well, the government said today.The Mid-Year Economic Review, presented in Parliament by minister of state for finance S S Palanimanickam, said: "An important and favourable development in recent times is the growing sign of an industrial resurgence - particularly in manufacturing." Overall industrial growth during the first half of current financial year was up at 10.3% compared to a growth of 8.4% in the same period last year and this helped overcoming the impact of subdued performance of the agricultural sector.On the price rise front, the government said the period since mid-April 2006 has been characterised by inflationary pressures due to rising prices of primary commodities."Notwithstanding an increase in prices of certain essential primary commodities, largely because of a demand-supply mismatch and hardening of international prices, overall inflation measured in terms of wholesale price index in first two quarters of the current year averaged 4.81% compared to 4.64% in FY06 and 6.68% in FY05 having successfully weathered the increase in price of crude oil," the review said.
