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NEW DELHI, April 17

IN a distinctly upbeat note, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) has forecast that India is likely to sustain GDP growth rate in the range of 6 to 7 per cent from 2003 to 2005.

This is, however, subject to the usual rider that barring major internal and external shocks and adverse climatic conditions, the UN body said in its annual publications released here by the Director General Research & Information System (RIS) for the non-aligned and other developing countries, Dr Nagesh Kumar.

The report released ahead of the UN body's annual meeting to be held next month said despite the continuing weakness in the global economy, FDI flows into India grew by 2.4 per cent to $4 billion in 2002, reflecting the ongoing improvement in infrastructure, further liberalization of foreign investment policies and the removal of economic sanctions on India by the United States. The bulk of FDI went into information, communication and technology activities, and engineering industries, services, electronics and electrical equipment, chemicals and allied products, food and dairy products.

There was also a marked improvement in India's external debt position, which, according to a World Bank classification, had been transformed from a ``moderately indebted country'' to a ``low indebted country'' as on 1999. The debt-to-GDP ratio declined continuously from 38 per cent in 1991 to just over 20 per cent in 2002 and the debt-service ratio from 35 per cent in 1990 to 13.3 per cent in 2002.

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