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The Economic Survey, to be presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman January 31, 2023, is likely to peg India’s growth at 6-6.8 per cent for 2023-24, the slowest in three years, according to news agency Reuters. Nominal Gross Domestic Product was estimated by Reuters at 11 per cent.
According to the agency, the Survey will likely take note of above-target inflation in India. That is estimated by the Reserve Bank of India to be 6.8 per cent in 2022/23.
However, the Survey is likely to argue that the pace of price increases is not high enough to deter private consumption or low enough to weaken investment, the Economic Times said, in an analysis of the Reuters report.
The Economic Survey for last year had predicted that India’s economy will grow at 8-8.5 per cent, the Economic Times noted.
The Survey last year had been pared down significantly and was 413 pages long. An entire volume had been removed.
Sanjeev Sanyal, the government’s Principal Economic Adviser, had written in the preface of the Survey for 2021-22 that the two-volume format, at almost 900 pages, was “becoming unwieldy”, according to Moneycontrol.
The Survey will be tabled in the Budget Session that starts at 11 am IST January 31, 2023. President Droupadi Murmu will address both Houses of Parliament, following which Sitharaman will present the Survey.
The Economic Survey is an annual report card of the economy. It analyses how each sector of the economy has performed and suggested future course of action.
This is the penultimate Survey and Budget before 2024 when India goes to the polls to elect a new Lok Sabha.
It also comes after nearly a year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine February 24, 2022, which disrupted supply chains globally and caused a food and energy crisis in its wake. It also comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has entered its fourth year.