The recovery has been triggered by rising demand and orders, higher output,comfortable forex reserves, lowest ever inflation in 17 years and nowpolitical stability at the national level. Bajaj said the "feel good" factorhas returned in the corporate sector and resulted sharp improvement inexpectations. Briefing the media, CII Associations Council chairman ArunBharat Ram said there has been a turnaround in the industry performance forApril to October 1999.

Deficit may be around 7%: Page 16CII survey sees impetus to industry growthThe forecast is that many of the sectors that have shown higher rate ofgrowth for production, sales and exports will continue to do well, BharatRam said.

Around 56 per cent of respondents expect the general business situation toimprove in the next six months. Last year, only 39 per cent expressedsimilar sentiments. Only 7 per cent in the current survey expect business todecline. More than 56 per cent are projecting growth in orders. Nearly 93per cent of the respondents expect an increase in production. Nearly 37 percent expect above 80 per cent capacity utilisation in the next six monthswhile 40 per are expecting a 61 per cent to 80 per cent growth.

Of the 125 sectors for which production trends were available, 24 sectorsreported excellent growth rates of over 20 per cent compared with 11 sectorslast year. Some of the sectors reporting excellent growth in the review arecaustic soda, power transformers, motor stampings and electrical cables.Other sectors that continue to do well are commercial vehicles, cars,telecom cables and IT industry. High growth of between 10 and 20 per centwas witnessed in 43 sectors up from 26 last year.