India growth prospect 'below trend': OECD

The growth prospect for India remains "below trend" whereas major developed economies such as the US and Japan are experiencing expansion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Monday.

The Paris-based think tank's conclusions are based on the Composite Leading Indicators (CLI) that are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activities.

"The CLIs for the United Kingdom, Canada, China and Brazil point to growth close to trend rates. The CLI indicates that growth is losing momentum in Russia, whereas for India, it continues to indicate growth below trend," said the OECD.

India's CLI stood at 97.3 in April, same as in February and March. In January, it was better at 97.5.

In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook last month, OECD had scaled down India's growth rate to 5.3 percent for 2013 from 5.9 percent estimated earlier. "More growth would be forthcoming if structural bottlenecks were swept away by fundamental structural reforms," it had said then.

India's economic growth slowed to a decade-low of 5 percent in the last fiscal from 6.2 percent in the 2010-11 period.

The OECD pointed to moderate improvements in growth in most major economies. The CLI for the US was unchanged at 101.0 while Japan, whose central bank has released a wave of massive monetary stimuli, saw its reading improve to 101.1 from 100.9.

In the Euro zone, the indicator for Germany suggested that growth was returning to trend with a reading of 100.0 for the region's biggest economy after 99.9 in April.