The Planning Commission said stronger economic expansion in the second half could push the growth rate for the current fiscal to beyond the 6.3 per cent mark projected earlier by the panel.
"On the industrial front in the last couple of months there is sequence of good news. I am hoping that the second half of this year, that means from end of September up to end of March, you will see stronger growth than you did in the first half," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters.
"When we had full Planning Commission meeting (on September 1), I had said our central assumption is about 6.3 per cent... but you know it could be little bit more...," he added.
Pointing out that the Indian economy, which too was hit by the global financial meltdown, has already stabilised, he said, "except drought which is affecting agriculture adversely... we expect to see revival from the last quarter. The next six months will be better than the first six months (of 2009-10)."
The economy, which slipped from a high of 9 per cent to 6.7 per cent 2008-09 because of the impact of the global financial crisis, reported a growth of 6.1 per cent the first quarter of the current fiscal.
Ahluwalia said, "We never had contractions. At the moment economy is growing. There is no negative growth. I am not sure what the second quarter growth rate will be, because we have to see the effect of drought."
Asked whether the economy is yet stabilised or not, he replied, "I think it (economy) has stabilised already, I think except from drought which is affecting agriculture adversely, non-agriculture part of the economy has stabilised and now we want to go further."
Expressing satisfaction over the economy's growth so far, he said, "It is too early to tell (about growth of economy in this fiscal) but I am saying 6.3 per cent is reasonable."
The Planning Commission has recently revised the average nnual growth rate of economy during the XIth-fve year plan to 7.8 per cent from earlier target of 9 per cent.
