“Inflation would settle in the 6 percent to 8 percent range by end of the year against the government’s projection of 5 percent,” said Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in its latest economic outlook survey.

“The only difference being that primary inflation will start to cool down from August 2010 onwards as the ‘negative base affect’ will come into play then and manufactured articles inflation would trend down from November 2010 onwards,” said the survey.

The apex chamber body also predicted GDP growth to be 8.5 percent for the year 2010-2011. According to the survey “Agriculture and allied activities growth will grow by 3.5 percent, Industry and services sector to grow 10 percent and 9 percent respectively,” said the survey. 

The survey also sees that fiscal deficit would remain at 5.1 percent during 2010-11, which is a downward revision from 5.8 percent obtained in the earlier survey.