Economic Survey 2019 Highlights: Economy@5trillion, job creation and other features

Economic Survey 2019: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Survey in Rajya Sabha a day before the maiden Union Budget of the new Narendra Modi government.

The Economic Survey 2018-19 tabled in Parliament by Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman forecasts a 7% GDP growth for India and aims to ‘shift gears’ for India to be a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25.

Economic Survey 2018-19 was tabled in Parliament by Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman.

Tabling the survey document in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said accommodative monetary policy is required to help cut real lending rates. The investment rate seems to have bottomed out. The decline in non-performing assets should push up the capital expenditure cycle. “The government stood by the fiscal consolidation path,” says the report.

Here are the highlights from the survey:

● 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.

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● Sustained real GDP growth rate of 8% needed for a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25.

● “Virtuous Cycle” of savings, investment and exports catalyzed and supported by a favorable demographic phase required for sustainable growth.

● Using insights from behavioural economics to create an aspirational agenda for social change:

● Survey focuses on enabling MSMEs to grow for achieving greater profits, job creation and enhanced productivity.

● Survey also focuses on service sectors such as tourism, with high spillover effects on other sectors such as hotel & catering, transport, real estate, entertainment etc., for job creation.

● Government must intervene in creating data as a public good, especially of the poor and in social sectors, survey says.

● Merging the distinct datasets held by the government already would generate multiple benefits.

● 100 per cent clearance rate can be achieved by filling out merely 2279 vacancies in the lower courts and 93 in High Courts, says the survey.

● 2.5 times increase in per capita energy consumption needed for India to increase its real per capita GDP by $5000 at 2010 prices, and enter the upper-middle income group.

● Survey proposes a well-designed minimum wage system as a potent tool for protecting workers and alleviating poverty.

● Headline inflation based on CPI-C continuing on its declining trend for fifth straight financial year remained below 4.0 per cent in the last two years.

● Food inflation based on Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) also continuing on its declining trend for fifth financial year has remained below 2.0 per cent for the last two consecutive years.

● Women’s participation in agriculture increased to 13.9 per cent in 2015-16 from 11.7 per cent in 2005-06 and their concentration is highest (28 per cent) among small and marginal farmers.

● 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.