NEW DELHI (REUTERS) - India's economic growth in the current fiscal year will likely remain flat at 5 per cent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday.

Dr Singh's forecast is more optimistic than those of several private economists, who are predicting growth in the year to March 2014 to slip below 5 per cent.

Pace of economic expansion in Asia's third largest economy hit a decade-low of 5 per cent in the last fiscal year.