The government today said economic growth rate could decline to 6 to 6.5 per cent in the third quarter (October-December 2009) on account of the impact of drought and floods on agriculture production.

"It (Q3 GDP) could be 6 to 6.5 per cent", Pronab Sen, Chief Statistician of India and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, told reporters when asked about the impact of drought on the third quarter growth rate.

The economy expanded by 7.9 per cent during the second quarter (July-September 2009-10) as compared to 6.1 per cent a quarter ago, reflecting the impact of the stimulus provided by the government to help the industry combat the adverse effect of the global financial meltdown.

"Q3 growth rate is expected to be quite significantly lower than Q2", Sen said, adding the impact of the monsoon failure and floods in different parts of the country would be reflected in the growth rate for the third quarter.

"As per the latest update, the farm production is likely to dip by 6 to 7 per cent during the third quarter", he told reporters after releasing the Annual Survey of Industries for 2007-08.

The agriculture sector growth rate during the second quarter slipped to below one per cent from 2.7 per cent a year ago in the same period.

Poor performance of the economy, as indicated by Sen, would have a bearing on the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate during the current fiscal.

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