The Planning Commission on Friday felt that there is case for revising economic growth projections upwards from the present 8.5 per cent, given the impressive 13.8 per cent industrial expansion in July.
“These July figures, I would say, are better than what I had expected. On the whole, taking together April-July, it thus suggests we are on track at least to achieve the growth rate target... In fact, there may be a good case to marginally increase it (GDP target)," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters here.
He, however, didn't give any exact figure. The government had fixed a target of 8.5 per cent growth for the economy this fiscal. GDP growth during the first quarter was 8.8 per cent, up from six per cent in the year-ago period.
As per the data released on Friday, the country’s industrial growth accelerated to 13.8 per cent in July from 7.2 per cent in the corresponding month in 2009.
The capital goods production jumped by a huge 63 per cent during the month. Among the main industry segments, manufacturing activity expanded by 15 per cent from 7.4 per cent a year ago. Mining sector grew by 9.7 per cent from 8.7 per cent while electricity generation growth slowed down to 3.7 per cent from the previous 4.2 per cent growth.
Production of consumer durable goods went up by 22.1 per cent. "The news is good. I had thought industrial growth would slow down in July. It has not happened. That's a great thing," Ahluwalia said.
Experts had earlier predicted single-digit industry growth for the month of July because of the base effect. The double-digit growth in July is commendable because industrial expansion in the previous month was revised down to 5.67 per cent from the earlier estimates of 7.1 per cent.
Industrial growth for the first four months of this fiscal stood at 11.4 per cent from 4.7 per cent a year ago. "All indicators we have as far as the economic growth is concerned suggest that things are going well," Ahluwalia added.