No.	Sectors	Growth (forecast)In %
1	Agriculture	2.6
2	Industry	7.6
3	Services	9.7
4	Overall	7.9

Owing to the depreciating US Dollar there has been a major decline in export growth of the sectors like textiles, petroleum products and engineering goods. These sectors clocked a growth rate of 8 %, 32 % and 21 % respectively over the first eleven months of FY2008 as compared to the much higher growth rates in the fiscal '07 at 11 %, 87 % and 38 % respectively.

Slowdown in the economic activity has also started taking toll on employment outlook. As per the government estimates, around 20 lakh jobs were cut in the export dependent sectors distressed by the strong domestic currency.

About 72 % of the ABB respondents were of the view that the Industry may witness a moderate growth rate of 7.6 % in FY ?9 as against 8.7 % in the previous fiscal. The sectors that have witnessed maximum decline in their growth rates over Apr-Feb 2007-08 include manufacturing (from 12.2 % to 9.1 %) and construction (11.9 % to 10 %).

Ten out of the seventeen industries of the manufacturing group have experienced a slower growth in their output during April-February 2008 as compared to the previous year period.

These industries include textile (10.6 % to 4.0 %), paper (8.7 % to 2.5 %), machinery and equipments (14 % to 9.5 %), Transport equipments (15.1 % to 3.3 %) among others. Metals products and parts, has posted a negative decline of 3.1 % in production during April-February 2008, as compared to 7.7 % of the corresponding period in the preceding year.

The flow of credit to the industrial sector also decelerated to 21.08 % in FY 08 as compared to 27.07 % in the previous financial year, due to high interest rates and rising raw material cost.

Growth in capital goods and intermediate goods slipped to 17.5 % and 9.2 % respectively in April-Feb 2008 as compared to 18.3 % and 11.7 % respectively during the same period of the previous year. The production of consumer durables recorded a decline by 1.0 % during April-February 2007-08.

Seventy four % of those surveyed feel that the consumer durables are becoming less affordable due to high interest rates. According to 69 % of the respondents, the outlook for the construction sector was quite bleak. The rising price of industrial raw material like steel and cement during the past 11 months may slow the growth of the sector.

Finished Steel and cement, which were witnessing huge demand arising from infrastructure projects being undertaken by the government and private bodies, are now recording decline in growth. In steel, the growth dropped from 11.1 % to 5.1 %, while in cement, the growth was 7 %, down from 9.9 %.

According to 75 % of the CEOs the prominent reasons for falling automobiles sales were lack of availability of finance due to high interest rates and rising input costs especially of steel. Consequent to a fall in demand for transport vehicles, the related industries like auto parts are also suffering, the ABB participants added.

In the automobile sector the total vehicle sales in the country dropped by 4.7 % in 2007-08, in terms of units, sale were down with 96,48,105 units, against 10,123,988 units in the previous fiscal. Among the segments, the maximum brunt has been born by the two-wheeler industry, registering a decline by 7.92 % % with sales being 72,48,600 units, during FY2008 compared to 78,72,334 units during the previous fiscal.

Seventy eight % of the corporate heads felt that rejig in the income tax slab in the Budget?9 might leave consumers with higher disposable income boosting consumption. However, its impact may get dampened with continuous tightening of the monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India.

Agriculture grew by almost 3.5 % during April-December 2007-08 but capital formation continues to remain low with investment in the sector remaining stagnant at 2.5 % as a ratio to GDP. Agricultural crops are witnessing huge increase in demand for feed and bio-fuel purpose which is creating pressure on supply worldwide.

Almost 67 % of the CEOs expect that in view of the loan waiver support provided in the Union Budget, higher commodity prices encouraging more production and normal monsoon conditions, agriculture sector may maintain a decent growth of 2.6 % growth in the financial year 2008-09.

Service sector has sustained the double-digit growth rate of 10.7 % in 2007-08 despite slowdown concerns in major sectors. Around 78 % of the ABB respondents felt that growth rate in services may settle to 9.7 % owing to pressure on US and UK economy and slowing of industry in fiscal 09.

The IT sector that contributes almost 10 % to the service sector, may expect a fall in growth due to US financial turmoil accompanied with weak- dollar revenue growth, hiring pattern and margin recovery that would impact the growth rate of the sector, was the response from 64 % of ABB corporate heads.

Fifty seven % of the respondents feel that the financial sector might get affected, especially the banking sector by reporting a slow growth, if RBI uses further hike in CRR to contain inflation.

Buoyancy in the transportation sector has been maintained with cargo, air and railway traffic witnessing sustained growth momentum. The cargo traffic at major ports has risen by 12.5 % during April- December 2007 as compared to 8.3 % in same period last year. The passenger traffic at air terminals grew by 26.8 % during the period April 朜ov ?8 on top of a 33.2 % increase in first eight months of FY07.

The total railway freight earnings recorded a low growth rate of 8.2 % during April-Dec ?8 as compared to 9.7 % in the previous fiscal year.

The telecom sector is buzzing with addition of 50.8 million total telephone subscribers during April-Dec 2007, as compared to 35.2 million during the corresponding period in the previous year. However, the growth rate moderated from 101.2 % during nine-month period in 2006-07 to 44.4 % in the same period of the next fiscal.