The world may still be battling the demons of a double dip recession,but India looks set to grow a stellar 9 per cent in 2010-11,making it one of the fastest growing economies besides China. Buoyed by rising consumption,an expected rebound in the farm sector and a robust performance by the services sector,the economy sprang a surprise by jumping 8.9 per cent in July-September 2010 over the corresponding quarter last year. This is the fastest quarterly growth in three years. Reacting to the GDP numbers which pulled up the BSE benchmark index Sensex 116 points to 19,521,finance minister Pranab Mukherjee,the governments crisis manager for all seasons,said,Amid all the depressing news,there is good news. The International Monetary Fund had earlier estimated India to clock a growth rate of 9 per cent this year. Normally I dont agree with IMF. Perhaps this time I may agree with IMF, he said. The growth drivers in the second quarter are trade,hotels,transport and communication and manufacturing that jumped 12.1 per cent and 9.8 per cent,respectively,over July-September 2009. Sequentially though,growth in manufacturing slowed down a bit compared with 13 per cent in the first quarter,April-June,this year. Agriculture,which more or less remained flat last year growing just 0.4 per cent,expanded by 4.4 per cent in the second quarter this year. What is most encouraging,however,is a strong revival of private consumption the missing link in Indias growth story. Clearly pointing to the robustness of a strong recovery,private consumption during April-September jumped 8.6 per cent compared with the 4.7 per cent rise in full year,2009-10. The momentum in consumption and services in the second half will likely catapult the economy to the 9 per cent growth orbit.
