Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2023-24 in both Houses of Parliament on July 22. The Economic Survey is a comprehensive review or annual report of Indian economy during the closed financial year, prepared by the Economics Division of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry under the guidance of the India’s Chief Economic Advisor (CEA).
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Here are the charts that show key numbers from the Economic Survey 2023-24:
According to the report, India’s GDP is likely to grow at 6.5 to 7 per cent in the current fiscal year amid global challenges which may impact exports. The growth projected for 2024-25 is lower than the economic growth rate of 8.2 per cent estimated for the previous financial year.
Read: Economic Survey 2023-24 updates
According to the Survey, India has remained on the course of fiscal consolidation amid the global trend of widening fiscal deficit. The fiscal deficit has been brought down from 6.4 per cent of GDP in FY23 to 5.6 per cent of GDP in FY24, according to provisional actuals (PA) data released by the Office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
The capital expenditure for FY24 stood at ₹9.5 lakh crore, an increase of 28.2 per cent on a YoY basis, and was 2.8 times the level of FY20. The government’s thrust on capex has been a critical driver of economic growth amidst an uncertain and challenging global environment, Chief Economic Adviser said.
Effective capital expenditure grew to 4.2% of the GDP at ₹12.5 lakh crores in FY ‘24, from 3.9% of the GDP (or ₹10.5 lakh crores) in FY ‘23.
According to the Survey, India’s external sector “is being deftly managed with comfortable foreign exchange reserves and a stable exchange rate”. Forex reserves as of the end of March 2024 were sufficient to cover 11 months of projected import, the Chief Economic Adviser said.
The Indian Rupee has also been one of the least volatile currencies among its emerging market peers in FY24.
India’s external debt vulnerability indicators continued to be benign. External debt as a ratio to GDP stood at 18.7 per cent as of end-March 2024. The ratio of foreign exchange reserves to total debt stood at 97.4 per cent as of March 2024 as per the Economic Survey 2023- 24.
Remittances to India — the second largest source of external financing after service exports — are projected to grow at 3.7% to $124 billion in 2024 and at 4% to reach $129 billion in 2025, the Economic Survey found. India’s primary source of remittances is oil-exporting countries. In 2023, remittances to India had hit $120 billion.
Extreme weather, lower reservoir levels and crop damage have affected farm output and led to higher food prices over the past two years, according to the survey. “Food inflation based on the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) increased from 3.8% in FY22 to 6.6% in FY23 and further to 7.5% in FY24,” read the consolidated report on the state of the economy in the previous year.
As indicated by the high inflation rates, these unfavourable weather conditions particularly impacted the production prospects of vegetables and pulses.
In 2022-23, foodgrain production hit an all-time high of 329.7 million tonnes. In 2023-24, food grain production is slightly lower at 328.8 million tonnes, primarily because of poor and delayed monsoons, the Survey found.
The public distribution of food grains calculated as a percent of the net availability of food grains shows that it fell to 19.4% in FY ‘23 as compared to 21.6% in FY ‘22. Although, the data from the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) - which, according to the Department of Food and Public Distribution, is a central government scheme to provide free food grains to about 81.35 crore beneficiaries (i.e. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households and Priority Households (PHH) beneficiaries) - is not included for FY ‘21 and FY ‘22.
Despite global supply chain disruptions and adverse weather conditions, domestic inflationary pressures moderated in FY24. After averaging around 6.7 per cent in FY23, retail inflation declined to 5.4 per cent in FY24. Measures undertaken by the Union Government such as open market sales, reduction in prices of LPG cylinders, a cut in petrol and diesel prices as well as a raising in policy rates by the RBI have helped in moderation inflation.
Consistent with the decline in the all-India average retail inflation rate in FY24 compared to FY23, inflation in most States and Union Territories (UTs) decreased. The inflation rate was less than 6 per cent in 29 out of the 36 States and Union Territories.
