Economic Survey 2022: Single Volume Likely, Could Project Around 9% Growth Rate For Next Fiscal

The Economic Survey 2022 is expected to project a growth of about 9 per cent for the next financial year, experts said citing base effect.

A file image of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Finance is expected to come out with a single volume Economic Survey for 2021-22, and it may project a growth of around 9 per cent for the next fiscal, according to reports.

The chief economic advisor (CEA) is traditionally is the main architect of the survey that is tabled in Parliament by the finance minister ahead of the Union Budget every year. This year, however, the Economic Survey is being prepared by the principal economic advisor and other officials in absence of a CEA, with Krishnamurthy Subramanian returning to academia completing his three-year term last year.

The new CEA apponited by the government, Dr V Anantha Nageswaran, assumed the charge only on Friday, the finance ministry said in a statement.

In July 2014 also, when the Narendra Modi government presented is first budget after coming to power, the CEA post was vacant. The survey presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley was prepared by senior Economic Advisor Ila Patnaik.  

What To Expect In Economic Survey 2022?

The economy is expected to record a growth of 9.2 per cent during the current financial year, which is a few notches lower than the 9.5 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank, according to the advance estimates of the National Statistical Office (NSO), news agency PTI reported.

The economy contracted by 7.3 per cent during 2020-21 dur to the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent nation-wide lockdown. The impact was comparatively less during the current fiscal as the lockdowns were limited and economic activity was not disrupted in in big way.

The survey may project a growth of about 9 per cent for the next financial year, the PTI report quoted experts as saying citing base effect.

The Economic Survey 2020-21, released in January 2021, had projected a GDP growth of 11 per cent during the financial year ending March 2022.

A recent World Bank said India is projected to grow at 8.7 per cent, while India Ratings and Research put the figure at 7.6 per cent on-year in FY23.

ICRA said in its report that the real GDP could maintain a 9 per cent rate of growth in fiscal 2022 and 2023 amid concerns over the Omicron variant of Covid.