Friday, September 9 2005 14:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Slowdown in growth of agriculture, forestry and fishing sector and a moderation in services sector is likely to pull down the growth of the Indian economy in the first quarter of this fiscal to 7.1 per cent against 7.6 per cent in the same quarter last year, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

"The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector is estimated to have grown by a lower rate of 1.5 per cent during April-June 2005 as compared with 3.8 per cent growth recorded in the same period of fiscal 2005," CMIE said in its Monthly Review of the Indian Economy.

However, the economic think-tank stuck to its earlier estimate of a 6.8 per cent GDP for this financial year.

On the Q1 performance, CMIE said the slowdown due to lacklustre performance of agriculture and related sector was offset by robust growth in the industrial sector.

"During April-June 2005, the industrial sector is likely to have seen the highest, 9.5 per cent growth in a quarter, at least since the commencement of the release of the quarterly GDP data," it said.