NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Friday lowered the nation's growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 7.1 percent, reported Indo Asian News Service.

    The council had earlier projected India's growth at 7.7 percent this fiscal year ending March 31.

    The Economic Advisory Council said that the downturn was due to the impact of global meltdown and warned that the fiscal deficit was well above the comfort zone.

    It explained that the slowdown was caused by painful adjustment to abrupt changes in the international economy, rising inflationary pressures emanating from spiraling commodity prices and deeper-than-anticipated recession in the advanced industrial countries in the second half.

    The Council, headed by renowned economist Suresh Tendulkar, also said that it expected the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to expand by 7-7.5 percent during the next fiscal.

    "The Indian economy is likely to remain relatively weak in the first quarter of the fiscal 2009-10 and slowly pick up thereafter," said Tendulkar, who expected a pick-up from the second quarter.

    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself lowered his growth forecast for fiscal 2008-09 to 6.5-7 percent, saying the period of hardship was not yet over for the Indian economy and that it would continue next year.

    The council, which advises the prime minister on key economic policy matters, said it expected the annual rate of inflation to fall further to 4.1 percent by the end of February. The inflation rate presently rules at 5.6 percent.