While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the Indian economy to grow at rate of 6.5 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively, during the calendar year 2012, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) kept its projection at an optimistic rate of 6.7 per cent.

On Friday, the PMEAC slashed its GDP growth projection from its own February forecast of 7.5-8 per cent to 6.7 per cent, and said that it was optimistic that the economy could do even better than that.

After releasing the Economic Outlook for the fiscal year of 2012-13, PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan said that there had been some underestimation of growth prospects.

Speaking on the topic, Rangarajan said, "We believe that there has been some underestimation of growth prospects and the economy can do even better than the projected 6.7 per cent. We believe the higher growth rate is achievable."

But, DK Joshi, director & chief economist, Crisil, which recently revised the economic growth projection to 5.5 per cent, warned that sub-optimal monsoon, and persistent bottlenecks in mining and manufacturing sectors could hamper production, and retard growth.