New Delhi, Jan.31: “The Indian economy is projected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8 per cent in 2023-24 as compared to the projected expansion of around 7 per cent in the current fiscal, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.”
The projected growth for the financial year beginning April 1 is the lowest in the past three years. India’s GDP expanded by 8.7 per cent in 2021-22 after a sharp 6.6 per cent contraction in the previous year due to lockdowns and disruptions caused by Covid pandemic. The Indian economy had grown by 3.7 per cent in 2019-20, the year which was also partly impacted by the pandemic.
Addressing a media briefing Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said the economic recovery from the Covid pandemic is complete. India’s economy is poised to do better in the remainder of this decade.
“The annual survey report noted that “recovering from pandemic-induced contraction, Russian-Ukraine conflict and inflation, Indian economy is staging a broad based recovery across sectors, positioning to ascend to the pre-pandemic growth path in FY23.”
“According to the Survey, India’s GDP growth will be in the range of 6 per cent to 6.8 per cent in 2023-24, depending on the trajectory of economic and political developments globally. The baseline GDP growth for FY24 is projected at 6.5 per cent.”
“Recovery of the economy is complete; non-banking and corporate sectors now have healthy balance sheets, hence, we don’t have to speak of pandemic recovery anymore, we have to look ahead to the next phase,” said Nageswaran.”
“The Survey noted that the headline retail inflation went through three phases in calendar year 2022. A rising phase up to April 2022 when it crested at 7.8 per cent, then a holding pattern at around 7 per cent up to August 2022 and then a decline to around 5.7 per cent by December 2022.”
