Agence France Presse

New Delhi, July 1:

India’s economic growth slowed to 6.9 per cent in the financial year ended March 2005 from 8.5 per cent the previous year mainly due to lower farm output, government data showed.

The farm sector, which accounts for a quarter of the country’s economy, recorded a growth of just 1.1 per cent in 2004-05 due to a poor monsoon against a healthy 9.6 per cent growth in the previous fiscal year when bumper rains fell, the government’s Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) said. The figures, published on the CSO’s website, are regarded as preliminary and are often revised by the finance ministry. The CSO said GDP growth in the fourth quarter ended March 2005 was 7.0 per cent, spurred by a 9.2 per cent surge in the manufacturing sector.