Economy to grow by 7.5% this fiscal, over 8 in next: FM

India's economy is poised to grow by 7.5% this fiscal and will top 8% in the next on the back of a strong industrial recovery, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
    
The Industrial Production figures suggest the economy will grow by 7.5% this fiscal and perhaps over 8% in the next fiscal, Mukherjee told reporters here.

The Index of Industrial Production, or the measure of the country's factory output, surged to a 16-year-high of 16.8% in December, led by a robust performance by manufacturing, particularly consumer durables, indicating that demand was picking up across sectors.

Analysts say the industry is set for a good showing in January as well. Research services provider Dun &Bradstreet expects industrial production to have grown by 13.5-14.5% for the month.

D&B revised upwards its growth forecast for the third quarter to 7.3% yesterday after taking into account the stunning performance by the industry.

"We have revised our GDP forecast for Q3 to 7.3%, from the earlier 6.8%, given the buoyancy witnessed in industrial activity in this quarter," D&B said in a release here today.