New Delhi : A day before thepresentation of General Budget, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented the Economic Survey for the 2018-19 Fiscal.
The Economic Survey has projected the real GDP growth for the year 2019-20 at 7 per cent, on the back of anticipated pickup in the growth of investment and acceleration in the growth of consumption. However, the country needs to grow at 8% to become a $ 5 Trillion economy.
The Survey clearly stated that the year 2019-20 has delivered a huge political mandate for the government, which augurs well for the prospects of high economic growth. The April, 2019 Report of the World Economic Outlook (WEO) of International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected India’s GDP to grow even higher at 7.3 percent in 2019. This is despite the Report projecting a decline in growth of world output and that of Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) by 0.3 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.
Key Points :
- India still the fastest growing major economy in 2018-19.
- Growth of GDP moderated to 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 from 7.2 per cent in 2017-18.
- Inflation contained at 3.4 per cent in 2018-19.
- Non-Performing Assets as percentage of Gross Advances reduced to 10.1 per cent at end December 2018 from 11.5 per cent at end March 2018.
- Investment growth recovering since 2017-18:
- Growth in fixed investment picked up from 8.3 per cent in 2016-17 to 9.3 per cent next year and further to 10.0 per cent in 2018-19.
- Current account deficit manageable at 2.1 percent of GDP.
- Fiscal deficit of Central Government declined from 3.5 percent of GDP in 2017-18 to 3.4 percent in 2018-19.
- Prospects of pickup in growth in 2019-20 on the back of further increase in private investment and acceleration in consumption.
- Net employment generation in the formal sector was higher at 8.15 lakh in March, 2019 as against 4.87 lakh in February, 2018 as per EPFO.