New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS) India's growth rate over the next couple of years will be 8-9 percent, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said here Friday.

'India's growth rates could over the next one to two years see a return to the 8-9 percent envisaged in the country's 11th (Five-Year) Plan,' said Zoellick.

The government has been pegging the economy's growth rate for this fiscal around 6.5-7 percent.

'India has emerged from the economic crisis with a clear vision of what it will take to accelerate back to earlier growth rate and beyond,' said Zoellick.

'Its strong fiscal and monetary policies had helped counter the decline in exports and withstand some of the external shocks brought on by the multiple food, fuel and financial crisis,' he added.