With the US sliding in to recession, rising global oil prices and growing domestic inflation will all contribute to slow the growth rate of the Indian economy to 7.9 per cent this year, fear a majority of Indian CEOs in recent ASSOCHAM survey.

Nearly 66 per cent of the CEOs polled stated that the US recession, domestic inflationary pressures, high interest rates and supply constraints have started hurting industrial growth and consumer demand that may further impact the GDP growth in the current fiscal the survey revealed.

75 per cent of the of the 217 respondents feel that the appreciating rupee, soaring prices of international crude oil and industrial metals could have an adverse impact on sustaining high growth of the economy.

64 per cent of corporate heads felt that the IT sector, which contributes almost 10 per cent to the service sector, may expect a fall in growth due to the US financial turmoil, weak dollar revenue growth and hiring.

27 per cent of the respondents said that the financial sector might be affected, especially the banking sector and may report a slow growth, if the RBI further hikes the cash reserve ratio to curb inflation.

Over 83 per cent of the respondents were of the view that achieving the Rs200 billion export target set for 2008-09 would be more difficult to achieve in view of the rising rupee, global inflationary pressures and tough competition from China in establishing new markets..

While the overall growth rate in India's exports seems to be healthy at 23 per cent in dollar terms for the April- February 2007-08, the slowdown in exports was visible in rupee terms with a meagre 9 per cent growth, Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot, chairman Videocon International was quoted as saying. Export growth of the sectors like textiles, petroleum products and engineering goods has declined due to the rise in rupee value vis-a-vis dollar, he said.