According to the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday the country economy is expected to grow by 8.6 per cent in this financial year.
The Survey says that industrial output grew by 8.6 per cent and manufacturing registered 9.1 percent growth. Exports had an impressive growth of 29.5 percent from April to December. Government gave a number of incentives to exporters for promoting exports besides hunting new markets in view of impact of economic meltdown in some European markets.
The imports have also increased by 19 percent in the same period due to higher prices of crude oil and food grains. The Survey says out that the trade gap has narrowed to over 82 billion US dollars in the first nine months of the current fiscal. The gross fiscal deficit stands at 4.8 per cent which is 1.5 percent less than last fiscal.
This is mainly due to huge revenue received in 3G auction and continued disinvestment process. The Survey says the spending in social sector programmes has increased by five percent of the GDP over past five years. The higher allocation in social sector programmes was possible only by higher growth.
The production of food grains is estimated at over 232 million tonnes with record production of wheat. Government’s intervention coupled with conducive monsoon would lead to this significant growth in the agriculture sector.
The Survey makes a strong case for a second green revolution with technological breakthrough in agriculture sector. It also says that there is scope of further improvements in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment guarantee scheme for building permanent assets including infrastructure development.