New Delhi, August 23: With various segments of the industry showing signs of recovery, a CII-Ascon survey on Sunday said the county’s economic growth could go up to 7 percent during 2009-10 against 6.7 percent in the previous fiscal.
Projecting a 6.5-7 percent growth rate for the current fiscal, the survey said, “the corporate results for the first quarter of 2009-10 showed some incipient signs of stablisation.”
The corporate results available for a sample of 515 companies for the quarter ending June, revealed that net sales growth has declined, while net profit growth has improved.
“…As a result of decline in cost of raw materials and power and fuel and moderation in growth of interest expenses the net profit grew strongly by 26 percent in the June quarter after having contracted by 7.2 percent in the previous quarter,” it said.
The survey said key segments like fertiliser, cement and two-wheelers have entered in the excellent growth category from higher growth levels during April-June 2009-10 compared to the same period previous year.
Sectors reporting excellent growth are industrial gases, automobile like scooters, it said.
“The number of sectors in both excellent and high growth category has recorded an increase reflecting that industry is building on marginal signs of recovery,” it said.
Sectors like polyester staple fibre, all three wheelers and nuclear energy shifted from negative to moderate growth during the first quarter of 2009-10.
The domestic industry recorded a year-on-year growth of 7.8 percent in June, marking a 16-month high compared to 5.44 percent in the same period last year.
However the survey also pointed out that percentage of sectors in negative growth category has increased to 39 percent this quarter compared to 21 percent in April-June 2008-09.
“The complete industrial recovery is still some time away… industry would need various measures announced by government to continue at least till March 2010,” it said.
Transformers, electric two wheelers moved to negative territory during April-June 2009-10 from excellent growth in the same period last year.
Transmission line towers, electric motors, switch gears, power cables and vanaspati also moved to negative zone from moderate and high growth.
–Agencies