The current fiscal will be the third consecutive year beginning 2003-04 when GDP has crossed the 7 per cent barrier, Assocham's Business Barometer survey revealed.
The corporates expect the services sector mainly trade, hotels, transport and communication to perform even better in the subsequent quarters, as they clocked an impressive 12.4 per cent growth in the first quarter this year, it said.
"The services sector, particularly the trade, transport and communication services have been contributing maximum to our GDP," Assocham President Mahendra K Sanghi said.
Over 70 per cent of the CEOs interviewed during the survey opined that the services sector could clock 9.5 to 10 per cent growth and would be influenced by the export of services including software and BPOs.
About 83 per cent of the respondents agreed that the growth rate of 11.3 per cent of the manufacturing sector in the first quarter of this fiscal will continue for the remaining year.
Agriculture continued its dependency on the irregular monsoons leading to poor kharif crops. However the respondents felt that the farm sector will not do as bad as feared earlier due to sufficient South West monsoons.
Most of the CEOs expressed concern over the rural economy and asked for adequate attention for the sector, failing which it would have a negative impact on the other crucial sectors.
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