With Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaging 7.5 per cent between 2014-15 and 2016-17, India can be rated as among the best performing economies in the world on this parameter. Although growth is expected to decline to 6.5 per cent in 2017-18, bringing the 4-year average to 7.3 per cent, the broad story of India’s GDP growth to be significantly higher than most economies of the world does not alter. The growth is around 4 percentage points higher than global growth average of last 3 years and nearly 3 percentage points more than the average growth achieved by emerging market & developing economies (EMDE).
The real per capita income (measured in terms of per capita net national income at constant (2011-12) prices is one of the important indicators representing the welfare of people of a country. It is expected to increase from Rs. 77,803 in 2015-16 to Rs. 86,660 in 2017-18, growing at an annual average rate of 5.5 per cent. In nominal terms it increased by an average of 9.0 per cent per annum from Rs. 94,130 in 2015-16 to Rs. 111,782 in 2017-18.
Consumption expenditure has been the major driver, accounting for nearly sixty per cent of the total GDP growth between 2012-13 and 2015-16. This contribution increased to over 95 per cent in 2016-17, which is attributed to higher growth of both Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) and Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE), particularly the latter. Growth of GFCE was nearly 21 per cent in 2016-17, against an average growth of 3.5 per cent during 2012-13 to 2015-16. This owed mainly to the payment of higher wages and salaries to the government staff that followed the implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.
The share of investment, and in particular that of fixed investment in the GDP continuously declined between 2011-12 and 2016-17. While fixed investment was 34.3 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, it declined to 27.1 per cent in 2016-17. Although fixed investment is expected to grow at a faster rate in 2017-18 than in 2016-17 (thus pointing to some recovery in investment), it is still not high enough to prevent a further reduction in the share of fixed investment in GDP. After nearly stagnating in 2014-15 and declining in 2015-16, exports of goods and services began to pick up in 2016-17. Imports also increased but at a slower pace, thus helping in narrowing the current account deficit in 2016-17. Exports are expected to grow at 4.5 per cent in 2017-18, while imports are expected to grow at a faster rate. As a result, the share of net exports of goods and services (as reflected in National Accounts Statistics) in GDP is expected to decline from (-) 0.7 per cent in 2016-17 to (-) 1.8 per cent in 2017-18.
The investment rate (Gross Capital Formation (GCF) as a share of GDP) in the economy declined by nearly 5.6 percentage points between 2011-12 and 2015-16. As can be seen from Table 3, the major reduction occurred in the year 2013-14, when investment rate declined by nearly 5 percentage points.
Economic Survey 2017-18 PDF Download – Volume I
Ten New Facts on the Indian Economy
State of the Economy: An Analytical Overview and Outlook for Policy
A New, Exciting Bird’s-Eye View of the Indian Economy Through the GST
Investment and Saving Slowdowns and Recoveries
Reconciling Fiscal Federalism and Accountability
Is there a “Late Converger Stall” in Economic Development?
Climate, Climate Change, and Agriculture
Gender and Son Meta-Preference
Transforming Science and Technology in India
Ease of Doing Business’ Next Frontier: Timely Justice
Economic Survey 2017-18 PDF Download – Volume II
An Overview of India’s Economic Performance in 2017-18
Review of Fiscal Developments
Monetary Management and Financial Intermediation
Prices and Inflation
Sustainable Development, Energy and Climate Change
External Sector
Agriculture and Food Management
Industry and Infrastructure
Services Sector
Social Infrastructure, Employment and Human Development
Savings in an economy originate from households, private corporate sector and public sector (including general government). In line with overall savings of the economy, the savings of household sector as a ratio of GDP have declined from 23.6 per cent in 2011-12 to 19.2 per cent in 2015-16, while that of private corporate sector have increased.
Household sector accounts for the bulk of the savings. However, the share of household savings in total savings declined from around 68 per cent in 2011-12 to 59 per cent in 2015-16.
There has been a consistent reduction in investment rate from close to 39 per cent in 2011-12 to 33.3 per cent in 2015-16, the latest year for which the information is available for GCF. However, information is available for the major components of investment viz. gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) which accounts for overwhelming proportion of GCF, changes in stock and valuables, for 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The growth in direct tax3 collections of the Centre kept pace with the previous year, with a growth of 13.7 per cent. The budgeted growth for indirect taxes for the full year 2017-18 is 7.6 per cent; the actual growth till November is 18.3 per cent. The eventual outcome in indirect taxes during this year will depend on the final settlement of GST accounts between the Centre and the States and the likelihood that only taxes for eleven months (excluding IGST on imports) will be realized. The States’ share in taxes grew by about 25 per cent during 2017-18 (Apr-Nov), much higher than the growth in centre’s net tax revenue at 12.6 per cent and of gross tax revenue at 16.5 per cent.
The survey underlines that due to the launch of transformational Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform on July 1, 2017, resolution of the long-festering Twin Balance Sheet (TBS) problem by sending the major stressed companies for resolution under the new Indian Bankruptcy Code, implementing a major recapitalization package to strengthen the public sector banks, further liberalization of FDI and the export uplift from the global recovery, the economy began to accelerate in the second half of the year and can clock 6.75 percent growth this year.
The survey points out that as per the quarterly estimates; there was a reversal of the declining trend of GDP growth in the second quarter of 2017-18, led by the industry sector. The Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant basic prices is expected to grow at the rate of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18 as compared to 6.6 per cent in 2016-17. Similarly, Agriculture, industry and services sectors are expected to grow at the rate of 2.1 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 8.3 per cent respectively in 2017-18.
The survey adds that after remaining in negative territory for a couple of years, growth of exports rebounded into positive one during 2016-17 and expected to grow faster in 2017-18. However, due to higher expected increase in imports, net exports of goods and services are slated to decline in 2017-18. Similarly, despite the robust economic growth, the savings and investment as a ratio of GDP generally declined. The major reduction in investment rate occurred in 2013-14, although it declined in 2015-16 too. Within this the share of household sector declined, while that of private corporate sector increased.
The survey points out that India can be rated as among the best performing economies in the world as the average growth during last three years is around 4 percentage points higher than global growth and nearly 3 percentage points higher than that of Emerging Market and Developing Economies. It points out that the GDP growth has averaged 7.3 per cent for the period from 2014-15 to 2017-18, which is the highest among the major economies of the world. That this growth has been achieved in a milieu of lower inflation, improved current account balance and notable reduction in the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio makes it all the more creditable.
Though concerns have been expressed about growing protectionist tendencies in some countries but it remains to be seen as to how the situation unfolds. Some of the factors could have dampening effect on GDP growth in the coming year viz. the possibility of an increase in crude oil prices in the international market. However, with world growth likely to witness moderate improvement in 2018, expectation of greater stability in GST, likely recovery in investment levels, and ongoing structural reforms, among others, should be supporting higher growth. On balance, country’s economic performance should witness an improvement in 2018-19.
The survey highlights that against the emerging macroeconomic concerns, policy vigilance will be necessary in the coming year, especially if high international oil prices persist or elevated stock prices correct sharply, provoking a “sudden stall” in capital flows. The agenda for the next year consequently remains full: stabilizing the GST, completing the TBS actions, privatizing Air India, and staving off threats to macro-economic stability. The TBS actions, noteworthy for cracking the long-standing “exit” problem, need complementary reforms to shrink unviable banks and allow greater private sector participation. The GST Council offers a model “technology” of cooperative federalism to apply to many other policy reforms.
Over the medium term, three areas of policy focus stand out: Employment: finding good jobs for the young and burgeoning workforce, especially for women. Education: creating an educated and healthy labor force. Agriculture: raising farm productivity while strengthening agricultural resilience. Above all, India must continue improving the climate for rapid economic growth on the strength of the only two truly sustainable engines—private investment and exports.
Inflation in the country continued to moderate during 2017-18. Headline inflation as per Consumer Price Index – Combined (CPI-C) declined to 3.3 per cent in 2017-18 (Apr-Dec) from 4.8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2016-17. CPI inflation, which was below 3.0 per cent in the first quarter of 2017-18 mainly due to lower food inflation, especially pulses and vegetables, rose marginally and stood at 3.0 per cent in the Q2 of 2017-18. Food inflation in terms of the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) declined to 1.2 per cent during 2017-18 (Apr-Dec) from 5.1 per cent in 2016-17 (Apr-Dec).
The global economy has been gathering pace and is expected to accelerate from 3.2 per cent in 2016 to 3.7 per cent in 2018. World trade volume growth is projected to increase from 2.4 per cent in 2016 to 4.2 per cent and 4.0 per cent respectively in 2017 and 2018. Commodity prices (fuel and nonfuel) are also expected to grow in contrast to decline in the last few years.
The year 2016-17 was characterized by positive growth in merchandise exports after two years of negative growth. Similarly, merchandise imports also printed positive growth in 2016-17 after three years of negative growth. Imports declined by around US $107 billion from US$ 491 billion in 2012-13 to US$ 384 billion in 2016-17. This was mainly due to a reduction in value of imports of crude oil and petroleum products to the tune of US $77 billion along with US $26.4 billion reduction of gold and silver imports during this period.
India’s foreign exchange reserves reached US$ 409.4 billion on December 29, 2017, with a growth of 14.1 per cent on a YoY basis from end-December 2016 and growth of 10.7 per cent from end-March 2017. The foreign exchange reserves were US$ 413.8 billion on 12th January 2018. The foreign exchange reserves in nominal terms (including the valuation effects) increased by US$ 30.3 billion during H1 of 2017 as compared to an increase of US$ 11.8 billion during the same period of preceding year. The import cover of India’s foreign exchange reserves increased to 11.1 months at end-September 2017.
One of the salient features of the external sector developments in the recent years has been the relatively stable rupee dollar exchange rate and much lower level of fluctuations within the year. The average value of the rupee had depreciated by over 21 per cent vis-à-vis the US dollar between 2011-12 and 2013-14, while it depreciated by 8.8 per cent between 2014-15 and 2016-17. The average value of rupee has appreciated with respect to US$ in 2017-18, so far, over 2016-17. Within the year fluctuations have been measured in terms of deviation of average daily rupee-dollar exchange rate from the annual average rate and have been reflected by the coefficient of variation around that annual average. The coefficient of variation is much lower in the last four years (2014-15 to 2017-18 (up to end December)), reflecting a more stable (lower within the year variations) exchange rate.
India’s stock of external debt increased by 5.1 per cent to US$ 495.7 billion at end-September 2017 from end-March, 2017. The increase in long term debt was primarily due to the increase in foreign portfolio investment included under commercial borrowings. Short term debt grew by 5.4 per cent, mainly due to an increase in trade related credits. Share of Government (Sovereign) debt in total debt increased to 21.6 per cent at end-September 2017 from 19.4 per cent at end-March 2017 mainly due to other Government external debt component reflecting the increasing level of foreign portfolio investments in Government securities. Foreign exchange reserves cover to total external debt improved to 80.7 per cent at end-September 2017 as compared to 78.4 per cent at end-March 2017.
What is Economic Survey 2018?
Economic Survey of India is a review document of the annual economic development of the country. It is basically the Finance Ministry’s view on on overall economic development. The central government presents Economic Survey just ahead of the Union Budget every year. Apart from reviewing the developments in the country’s economy over the previous 12 months, the document also presents the performance on major flagship programs. It also showcases highlights the policy initiatives of the government. The prospects of the economy in the short to medium term are also presented through the Economic Survey.
