The Budget Session of Parliament began today. On the first day of the Session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman tabled the Economic Survey 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha. The Economic Survey has projected a real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 6.5 to 7 per cent in Financial Year 2024-25.
According to the survey, domestic growth drivers have supported economic growth in financial year 2023-24 despite uncertain global economic performance.
The services sector continues to significantly contribute to India’s growth, accounting for about 55 per cent of the total size of the economy in the financial year 2024. As per the provisional estimates, the services sector is estimated to have grown by 7.6 per cent.
The Survey highlights that the global trade outlook for 2024 remains positive, with merchandise trade expected to pick up.
On the inflation front, the Reserve Bank of India expects headline inflation to be 4.5 per cent in financial year 2025 and 4.1 per cent in 2026.
According to the Economic Survey 2023-2024, against the global trend of widening fiscal deficit and increasing debt burden, India has remained on the course of fiscal consolidation. It says, India’s fiscal deficit has been brought down from 6.4 per cent of GDP in Financial Year 2023 to 5.6 per cent of GDP in Fiscal Year 2024. It also says that India’s fiscal deficit is expected to drop to 4.5 per cent of GDP or lower by the financial year 2026.
Addressing a press conference this evening, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran said, there is a momentum of growth in the economy.
Dr. Nageswaran said, the agriculture sector is expected to perform better in the coming year. The Agriculture sector has registered an average annual growth rate of 4.18 per cent over the last five years.
The Chief Economic Adviser Dr Nageswaran said, the Economic Survey highlighted that Indian Economy needs to generate nearly 78.5 lakh jobs annually in the non-farm sector until 2030 to cater to the rising workforce.
Dr Nageswaran said, infrastructure expansion in India witnesses significant growth in recent years.
According to the survey, India’s services exports grew by 4.9 per cent to over 341 billion US dollars in the financial year 2024, with growth largely driven by IT, software services and other business services. It said, India’s banking and financial sectors have also displayed a stellar performance in 2024.
