The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has placed the real growth in gross domestic product (GDP) at six per cent for fiscal 2004.
A recovery in agricultural output coupled with the continuance of the upturn in the industrial and the services sectors should help achieve the projected growth for 2003-04.
The central bank is confident of the Indian economy achieving the targeted growth rate, but subject to various macroeconomic factors.
It has highlighted satisfactory spatial distribution, provided that rainfall is around 96 per cent of the long term average (as per advance forecast released by India Meteorological Department on April 16, 2003) and recovery in agricultural output to be over 3.1 per cent during 2003-04 (which is the estimated decline in output during 2002-03).
For the year 2002-03, the mid-term RBI Review of Monetary and Credit Policy released on October 29, 2002 had projected the GDP growth in the range of 5.0 to 5.5 per cent taking into account available data on the performance of the South-West monsoon.
The advance estimates for 2002-03 released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in January 2003 has placed GDP growth at 4.4 per cent.
This reflects an estimated decline in the output from agriculture and allied activities by as much as 3.1 per cent. The earlier projection in the RBI
