Indian economy projected to grow 5.9 per cent in 2012-13

India would see slower economic growth of 5.9 per cent in the current fiscal even as there were reasons to believe the "economy has turned the corner", an United Nations agency report said today, the PTI reported.

According to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), India's growth had been slowing down since 2011, mainly due to "severe" monetary tightening by the Reserve Bank of India.

"India is projected to grow at 5.9 per cent in 2012-13 compared with 6.5 per cent in 2011-12," UN ESCAP said in the report titled 'South and South-West Asia Development Report 2012-13'. It projected a GDP growth of 6.8 per cent for 2013-14, saying there

were reasons to believe the economy had turned the corner.

"Firstly, in September 2012, the government signalled its determination to pursue pending economic reforms including FDI in multi-brand retail and civil aviation and the partial phasing out of fuel subsidies," it noted. The report said, however, this year's monsoon season turned out to be not as weak as initially feared.

The Indian economy has been slowing down since 2011, after clocking over 8 per cent average growth over the three previous years.