A majority of companies remain pessimistic about the outlook for the economy in the current fiscal and expect only a mild recovery in the next fiscal year, a new survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) revealed.

The CII questioned chief executive officers (CEOs) of member companies of its National Council, and found 44 per cent predicting that the India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth would slip below 6 per cent in the current fiscal.

Another 44 per cent said the GDP growth would remain in the range of 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent.

They also expressed concerned that the situation would not likely improve much in 2013-14 either. More than half (25 per cent) of the respondents said that expected that GDP growth would remain in the range of 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent, while just 36 per cent said they expected the growth rate to remain in the range of 6.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

As per recently released official stats, India's GDP grew at a sluggish rate of 5.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of this year, considerably down from 8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2011.

Commenting on the findings, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said, "This reflects low confidence levels in industry. The first quarter GDP growth at 5.5% corroborates the fact that the slowdown is sustaining."

When it comes to inflation, 56 per cent of CEOs predicted the average rate of inflation to remain between 7 per cent and 8 per cent, while 32 per cent of the respondents said they expected it to be in the range of 6 per cent to 7 per cent.