Economy to grow at 8.5%, says PM's advisory panel

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council on Friday said the economy will grow by 8.5 per cent, up from a projected 8.2 per cent, and inflation will come down from double digits to 6.5 per cent by the end of 2010-11.

The growth projection has been revised upwards on account of prospects of good monsoon, PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan said while releasing the economic outlook for the current fiscal.

It forecast a growth of 9 per cent for 2011-12.

In February, the Council had projected a growth rate of 8.2 per cent for the current fiscal.

At the same time, it expected prices to moderate on account of good crop and inflation to cool partly due to base effect and drop signficantly by March 2011 from over 10.55 per cent now.

Rangarajan was speaking to reporters after presenting the Economic Outlook for 2010-11 to Prime Minsister Manmohan Singh.