India's finance minister said Tuesday he was confident the economy would grow by more than six percent this year despite widespread drought and the global economic downturn.
"This year, we are projecting six percent plus growth," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
The forecast came despite monsoon rains that are 29 percent below normal in India, where rural consumers are important drivers of economic growth.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said Monday that 207 districts out of India's 626 districts were affected by drought.
The minister's comments came as another official said exports fell for a 10th month in a row in July, as global demand for made-in-India goods remained weak.
Exports slumped 26 percent from a year earlier last month, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said in a preview of official data still to be released.
In June, exports slid 28 percent to 12.8 billion dollars from a year earlier.
The government is due to unveil its new foreign trade policy on August 27 in which more measures are expected to be announced to help export-dependent industries.
The policy is expected to give incentives to Indian exporters to widen their global markets beyond the United States, the European Union and Japan to counter the fall in overseas sales.
Unlike China, where overseas sales have been a main growth driver, exports account for around just 15 percent of gross domestic product in India's still relatively inward-looking economy.
Economists say this, along with India's vast domestic market of nearly 1.2 billion people, has helped shield the economy from the impact of the worst global slump since the 1930s.
India's economy expanded by 6.7 percent last year after growing by a blistering nine percent for several years.
While six percent growth looks strong compared with anaemic levels in the United States, Japan and Europe, India says it needs to return to at least nine percent expansion to significantly alleviate widespread, crushing poverty.
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