The World Bank has come out with a frank appraisal of India's development experience. Its report "India: Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty" has, however, drawn strong negative reactions from the North Block. While the World Bank has given expression to its standard prescriptions for poorer economies, it has on the whole been complimentary to India. The World Bank report stresses the obvious when it points out that economic growth slowed down from an annual average of 6.7 per cent over the five years from 1992-93 to 1996-97 to 5.5 per cent from 1997-98 to 2001-02.