CII survey reveals 17 sectors have negative growth

A survey released on Sunday, 11 November, 2007 said that 17 out of the 91 manufacturing sectors showed a dip in production, while another 37 grew at single digit rates, mainly due to rising cost of credit and an appreciation of rupee against dollar. Only 15 sectors reported over 20% growth while another 22 grew at 10% or more in the first half of this fiscal.
CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) blamed free trade agreements (FTA) signed in the last two years, though a framework, a bilateral pact, was the deal only recently clinched. Most other FTAs have been on the backburner due to political opposition.
The CII survey comes a day before the government releases the industrial growth data for the first half. But the economists are predicting a robust growth of around 9%.
While the scare of slowdown because the industrial growth rate slipped to 7.2% in July was proved a false alarm as the August figures showed a double digit rates, a fresh worry has set in with the trade data for September estimated import growth around 2%. Economists however dismissed the rate of import growth as a statistical blip.