Economic Survey 2017-18: Volume II

FOCUS

The Economic Survey is submitted annually by the Ministry of Finance to both the houses of parliament. The government formulates its budget based on the data in the survey, which traces the development of the economy’s major sectors and measures the performance of various policies and schemes. The survey also discusses how the finance ministry has addressed various economic challenges and makes recommendations for policy.

Volume 1 contains the analytical overview. Volume 2 of the Economic Survey 2017-18 provides the more descriptive review of the fiscal year, encompassing all the major sectors of the economy. It offers an analysis of the economy’s performance, fiscal developments, monetary management, the financial sector, prices and inflation, energy, sustainable development, agriculture, food management, industry, infrastructure, the services sector, employment, human development, social infrastructure and the external sector (public and private international transactions) for the past year.

This is the first Economic Survey after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Volume I examines how the tax has affected internal and external trade, the size of the tax net, and the formal and informal sectors. 

    FACTOIDS

  1. The World Bank estimates that half of India’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050. The percentage of agricultural workers in the total work force will drop to 25.7 per cent in 2050 from 58.2 per cent in 2001.

  2. Real estate and construction together were the second largest employment providers, next only to agriculture. They were projected to employ over 52 million workers by 2017 and 7 million by 2022.

  3. The number of persons defecating in the open in rural areas declined from 55 crores in October 2014 to 25 crores in January 2018. When the survey was published, 296 districts and 307,349 villages had been declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF).

  4. As of December 2017, there were 13.72 lakh elected women representatives in Panchayati Raj institutions, which constituted 44.2 per cent of the total elected representatives. Women sarpanchs headed 43 per cent of the gram panchayats across the country.

  5. The year 2017-18 had the highest budget allocation (Rs. 48,000 crores) for MGNREGA. Around 4.6 crore households were provided employment totaling 177.8 crore ‘person days’ as of January 14, 2018. Of these ‘person days’ (a measure for the ideal amount of work done by one person in one working day), 54 per cent were generated by women, 22 per cent by Scheduled Castes and 17 per cent by Scheduled Tribes.

  6. The report India: Health of the Nation’s States (2017), quoted in the Economic Survey, states that in 2016 malnutrition contributed to 14.6 per cent of the disease burden; poor water and sanitation, 5 per cent; communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases, 33 per cent; non-communicable diseases, 55 per cent; and injuries, 12 per cent.

  7. The all-India expenditure on social services was 5.8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2015-16 as compared to 6.6 per cent in 2017-18. Expenditure on social services in 29 states also increased in the same period, from 6 to 6.9 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product.

  8. Till September 22, 2017, the kharif food grains production for 2017-18 was an estimated 134.7 million tons – 3.9 million tons lower than in 2016-17 (138.5 million tons). Till January 19, 2018, rabi crops were still being sowed on an estimated 617.8 lakh hectares.

  9. The survey quotes the web portal of the Rural Electrification Corporation, which  states that 14.2. crore rural households (78 per cent) of a total of 18.1 crores had electricity connections by January 16, 2018. And of the total installed capacity (330,860.6 million watts), around 18 per cent was from renewable energy sources till November 30, 2017.

  10. Inflation (as per the Consumer Price Index) averaged at 3.3 per cent for the financial year 2017-18, the lowest in the last six financial years.

  11. From April to September 2017, the total foreign direct investment flowing into India was US$ 33.75 billion. FDI inflow grew by 8 per cent in 2016-17 and was US$ 60.08 billion as compared to US$ 55.56 billion in the previous year.

  12. The services sector continued to drive economic growth, and the sector was expected to grow by 8.3 per cent in 2017-18. Services exports recorded a 16.2 per cent growth between April and September 2017, with a turnaround in travel and software services.

  13. The growth in direct tax collections of the Centre in 2017-18 kept pace with the previous year, from 9.33 lakh crore in 2016-17 to 10.87 lakh crore in 2017-18.

  14. India’s balance of payments remained comfortable with the country’s current account deficit at 1.8 per cent of GDP in the April-December 2017 period. Merchandise exports picked up with a growth of 12.1 per cent, net services receipts increased by 14.6 per cent, and net foreign investment grew by 17.4 percent.

    Focus and Factoids by Ragini Rao Munjuluri.    

AUTHOR

Department of Economic Affairs, Economic Division, Ministry of Finance

COPYRIGHT

Government of India

PUBLICATION DATE

ਜਨ, 2018

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