GDP expected to remain below 6%: CII

The country's economic growth in the current fiscal is expected to remain below 6 per cent, possibly due to low confidence levels in the industry, a survey today said.

"A majority of CEOs remain pessimistic about the outlook for the economy in the current year and expect only a moderate recovery in the forthcoming year," CII said in its survey.

The survey indicated that the GDP growth during 2012-13 is expected to remain below 6 per cent, it said.

"This reflects low confidence levels in industry. The first quarter GDP numbers corroborate the fact that the slowdown is sustaining. Our best hope would be that the economy is bottoming out," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement.

However, from the results of the snap poll or from government data, the industry body does not have adequate indicators to substantiate this hypothesis.

Poor showing by the manufacturing sector pulled down the GDP growth to 5.5 per cent in the April-June quarter, the decade's worst Q1 performance.

Over half of the 75 CEOs who participated in the survey expect the average rate of inflation in this financial year to be in the range of 7-8 per cent.

About 75 per cent of the respondents do not expect economic reforms - introduction of GST, FDI in multi-brand retail and FDI cap in insurance and pension sectors - to move forward given that general elections are coming up in 2014.

Majority of the respondents expect both domestic and international investment either to increase or remain unchanged during 2012-13, CII said.

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