Prime Minister's Economic Advisory panel chief C Rangarajan today said the economic growth rate

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in 2011-12 could be over 7 per cent, slightly higher than the projection of the Central Statistical Organisation.

"If industrial production picks off in the current quarter, then I will not be surprised if the final or revised estimate is 7 per cent or more than 7 per cent," Rangarajan, who is the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said here.

His comments came after the CSO, in its Advanced Estimates, said the economic growth is likely to fall to a three-year low of 6.9 per cent in 2011-12.

This, it said, was mainly due to sharp slowdown in manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors, against 8.4 per cent expansion in the last fiscal.

"The numbers (in Advanced Estimates) are below 7 per cent but my expectation is that when the final estimate comes it will be more than 7 per cent for this fiscal," Rangarajan said.

As per the data, agriculture and allied activities are likely to grow at 2.5 per cent in 2011-12, compared to a robust growth of 7 per cent in 2010-11.

Manufacturing growth is also expected to drop down to 3.9 per cent in this fiscal from 7.6 per cent last year.

The CSO's GDP growth projection is a tad lower than the 7 per cent forecast made by the Reserve Bank of India in its quarterly monetary policy review last month.

In its mid-year Economic Review, the government had pegged growth at around 7.5 per cent.