India's economy grew an estimated 6.5 per cent in the just-ended 2008/09 fiscal year

RELATED ARTICLES Petrol price hike to have marginal impact on inflation Rupee fall unlikely to drive up inflation risks: Credit Suisse Have to act even if inflation driven by food: RBI Inflation jump means India monetary easing hard: Rangarajan After weak IIP, markets look to inflation data for revival cues

and consumer price inflation is expected to moderate in five to six months, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.

A global economic slump and slowdown in domestic demand have weakened economic growth in Asia's third largest economy, but falls in commodity prices have helped moderate prices.

"The wholesale price inflation is already down to around 1 per cent and there is a time lag for the consumer price inflation to also fall," Singh told a news conference at Ludhiana. "But I am sure CPI inflation will moderate in five to six months," he said at the last lap of a month-long election campaign in the northern state of Punjab.

India's wholesale price index rose 0.70 per cent in the 12 months to April 25, above the previous week's annual rise of 0.57 per cent.

But annual CPI inflation stood at 9.63 per cent in February, as prices of food products remained firm. Singh said the government estimated Asia's third-largest economy grew 6.5 per cent the 2008/09 financial year, which ended on March 31. That would be well below 2007/08's 9 per cent and the slowest since growth of 3.8 per cent in 2002/03, but Singh said it was still the second-highest growth rate among major economies.

The central bank has forecast growth to further slow to 6 per cent in 2009/10. Private analysts have also scaled down growth forecasts for 2008/09 and 2009/10 after dismal export and factory output data. The government will release GDP data for 2008/09 on May 29.