Kerala records all time high growth rate of 9.2%

The state's income at current prices stood at Rs 89451.99 crore during the period.

Kerala's economy registered an all time high growth rate of 9.2 per cent in 2004-05, with the major contribution of 13.8 per cent in the services sector, the Economic Review tabled in the State Assembly on Thursday revealed.

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The state's income at current prices stood at Rs 89451.99 crore during the period, compared to Rs 80116.12 crore for the previous year. The growth rate was 7.4 per cent during the previous year.

The service sectors like tourism, real estate and banking contributed 13.8 per cent to the growth rate, while that of agriculture and allied industries was 2.5 per cent.

Industries and the power sector added 1.3 per cent, the review said.

The industrial sector growth rate was negative by about two per cent during the year under review. The general index of industrial production continuously declined from 302.29 in 2001-01 to 262.59 in 2003-04, it said.

One of the remarkable developments in the last three years was the increase in the area of paddy cultivation and its production, largely due to lease land farming, it stated.

There were about 33519 Neighbourhood Groups of Women (NHGs) with 3,27,063 below poverty line families presently involved in the lease land programme, covering 21,584 hectares of land.

However, marine fish production declined slightly to 6.02 lakh tonnes during the year under review from 6.09 lakh tonnes the previous year. Promotion of reservoir fisheries, 'one paddy one fish' culture, ornamental fisheries and fish culture in tanks and ponds offered good scope in the state, it said.