India's economic growth may fall short of the 7.5-8 per cent forecast for this fiscal by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the next year could be even more painful, RBI Governor D Subbarao said today.
"All indications are that it (GDP forecast) may be revised downwards" when the central bank reviews the annual monetary policy in January, RBI Governor D Subbarao told reporters after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here.
He warned that fiscal 2009-10 could be more painful.
The Governor, who was in the city for a meeting of the central bank's board, said: "International Monetary Fund has revised the global growth and forecast for emerging economies significantly. Reflecting that, we will be doing our own numbers when we do policy adjustments in January."
As per the IMF forecast, the world economy is likely to grow by 2.2 per cent in 2009, as against the earlier projection of 3 per cent.
RBI, which has projected 7.5-8 per cent economic growth for the current fiscal in October with a downward bias, is slated to announce the quarterly review of the monetary policy on January 27 next year.
The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, which has projected a GDP growth rate of 7.7 per cent for 2008-09, too, is likely to revise the forecast early next year.
The economy, as per the official growth estimates, has recorded a growth rate of 7.8 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal, down from 9.3 per cent in the year-ago period.
