RBI survey pegs GDP growth at 5.7%

"The median forecast of real GDP growth for 2009-10 has been revised downward to 5.7 per cent to 6 per cent," RBI said while releasing the results of professional forecasters' survey.

The central bank's forecast for the economic growth rate for the current fiscal is significantly lower than 6.5 to 7 per cent indicated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday.

As regards 2008-09, the RBI-authorised survey said the growth rate could be 6.6 per cent, down from the earlier projection of 6.8 per cent.

The Central Statistical Organisation in its estimates for national income in February had projected a growth rate of 7.1 per cent for 2008-09.

The RBI survey's economic growth forecast for 2009-10 at 5.7 per cent comes midway between 4 and 7.5 per cent projected by various agencies, including World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

While the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Committee has projected 7-7.5 per cent GDP growth rate, the World Bank has placed the country's economic expansion at a modest 4 per cent. IMF has pegged a growth rate at 5.25 per cent.