India's economy may grow at the slowest pace since 2003 this year, undermining Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's re-election bid in two months.

Asia's third-largest economy will probably expand 7.1 percent in the year ending March 31, the statistics office said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. The median forecast of 24 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 6.8 percent gain.

India is succumbing to the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, rendering millions of people jobless. Singh faces the risk of being voted out in general elections, said Duncan Campbell, director of the International Labor Office's economic analysis department. "Around 7 percent growth isn't good enough for India," said Geneva-based Campbell.