India's economy is expected to grow by 5.7% in the current fiscal year and reach 6.6% in the next, a United Nations (UN) report has projected. The prediction is higher than the 5% made by the World Bank earlier this month.

According to the UN's World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 report released on Thursday, only China has a higher growth rate than India among the world's large economies with a 6% forecast for the current calendar year. The report further adds that global growth slowed to a 10-year low of 2.3% in 2019. A modest acceleration is expected going forward, with average world gross product growth projecte1d at 2.5% in 2020 and 2.7% in 2021.

Speaking on the prediction, Dawn Holland, head of UN's Global Economic Monitoring Branch, said that although there has been a steep decline in growth, India was still one of the high performers globally, adding that the steps being taken in this regard are expected to improve the growth rate.

UN's Chief Economist Elliott Harris, while briefing the media about the report, said that rising tariffs and rapid shift in trade policies were responsible for the slower growth rate with the US-China trade disputes playing a key role.

The report has forecasted Bangladesh to grow by 8.1% this fiscal year and 7.8% in the next, while Pakistan's growth rate is projected at 3.3% for 2019-20 which will slip to 2.1% next year.

Associate Economics Affairs Officer Julian Slotman, the UN`s point-person for Indian and South Asia, said in an interview to news agency IANS that "a huge decline in investment and in private consumption" were the major reasons for the economic slowdown in India.

"Globally we have seen a large impact of trade tensions, particularly between the US and China, but also other major economies, that have affected growth rates across the globe and also, of course, India which is a very open economy, that has a lot to gain from international trade," he said.

(With inputs from IANS)