Economic Survey of India 2022-23 :
The Economic Survey is an annual report card of the economy which examines the performance of each and every sector and then suggests future moves.
Significance of the Economic Survey
One of the most-watched numbers ahead of the Budget, the Economic Survey is the projection of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the next fiscal. It contains crucial insights into the country’s economic condition.
The ray of optimism as the country recovers from the impact of the pandemic is likely to figure prominently in the current year’s Economic Survey.
India’s economy, as per the advance estimates of the National Statistical Office (NSO), is expected to record a growth of 9.2 per cent during the current fiscal, which is a tad lower than the 9.5 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank.
Putting the spotlight on the way forward after the pandemic, the Economic Survey of 2021-22 has analysed aspects such as inflation, global liquidity measures, and rising energy prices to detail the risks for the economy going ahead. It has also taken stock of growing revenues to indicate the availability of fiscal space, should the government see the need to provide additional support.
The Survey has noted that growth in 2022-23 will be supported by widespread vaccine coverage, gains from supply-side reforms and easing of regulations, robust export growth, and the availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending.
The Economic Survey tabled in the Lok Sabha by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out that buoyant tax revenues offered the government fiscal space to provide additional support to the economy and continue the push in favour of higher capital expenditure. Though output in various contact intensive services remained below pre-pandemic levels, it said the macroeconomic strength provided buffers against likely stresses such as withdrawal of stimulus by global central banks.
The Economic Survey 2021-22 has projected a modest 8-8.5 per cent growth rate for the next financial year, 2022-23. This is significantly lower than the 9.2 per cent expansion projected by the NSO in its first advance estimates for 2021-22. It is also lower than the 9 per cent growth estimate by the IMF in its World Economic Outlook for the current year and the next.
Behind the conservative estimate for the next year are not just the many risks — global inflation to shortage of inputs — posed by Covid-19 the Survey points to, but also its assessment that the economic slowdown induced by the pandemic is not merely a demand problem.
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