GDP growth likely to exceed 7.3 percent in 2015-16: Jaitley

Dubai, Nov 16: India's economic growth is expected to exceed 7.3 percent in the 2015-16 fiscal and go higher during the next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

"The Indian economy is expected to grow better than 7.3 percent level achieved last fiscal, and at an even higher level next year," Jaitley said at investors forum here.

In this regard, India's finance minister noted that rural demand in the country had been impacted by deficient monsoon rains in last two years.

Jaitley is on a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates to acquaint the investors there about the various investment opportunities in India.

Late last month, the World Bank maintained its growth forecast for India in 2015-16 at 7.5 percent, while lowering marginally the projection for 2016-17 to 7.8 percent, and for 2017-18 to 7.9 percent.

"However, acceleration in growth is conditional on the growth rate of investment picking up to 8.8 percent during FY 2016-FY 2018," the bank said in its latest India Development Update released in New Delhi.

"While growth will very likely remain above 7 percent in the next fiscal year, there is significant uncertainty about the momentum of the economy," it added.

The earlier bi-annual update, released in April, had estimated gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.9 percent in the next fiscal and at 8 percent in 2017-18.

IANS