Economic Survey 2012-13: Highlights

The Finance Ministry has tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament on Thursday. It is customary to present it in Parliament a day before the Union Budget, highlighting its view on the state of the economy.

Here we give you the highlights of Economic Survey 2012-13 presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee:

-          Economic growth rate in 2011-12 estimated at 6.9%.

-          Predicts GDP growth expected to touch 7.6% in 2012-13 and 8.6% in 2013-14. 

-          Forecasts 2.5% growth in Agriculture and 9.4 % in Services sector with its share in GDP going up to 59% .

-          Industrial growth pegged at 4-5 Per cent

-          Inflation on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) high but showing clear signs of moderation. Expected to boost investment that will in turn help economic growth.

-          WPI food inflation dropped from 20.2% in February 2010 to 1.6% in January 2012

-          India's sovereign credit rating rose by a substantial 2.98 percent in 2007-12; still among the fastest growing economies of the world.

-          Fiscal consolidation on track - savings and capital formation expected to rise.

-          Exports grew at 40.5% in the first half of this fiscal and imports grew by 30.4%.

-          Foreign trade performance to determine the growth rate.

-          Spending on social services goes up to 18.5% this fiscal. It was 13.4% in 2006-07. 

-          MNREGA coverage increases to 5.49 crore households in 2010-11.

-          Sustainable development and climate change concerns on high priority.

-          Gross capital formation during the third quarter of 2011-12 as a ratio of GDP was at 30%, down from 32% a year ago.

-          Inflation touched 10.1 percent in September 2011 but came down to 6.5 percent in December 2011.

-          Objective of monetary policy during 2011-12 has been to rein in inflation and contain inflationary expectations.

-          India's 'comparative rating index for sovereigns' (CRIS) has seen a rise from 23.81 in 2007 to 24.52 in 2012.

-          Recommends contracts as central driver of modern economy.

-          Cumulative exports grew at a rate of 23.5 per cent reaching US $ 242.8 billion.

-          Imports during April - Jan 2011-12 was US $ 391.5 billion while it was US $ 302.5 billion during the same period last year.

-          Services exports during the first half of 2011-2012 was 17.1 per cent compared to 32.7 per cent during the first half of 2010-11.

-          Rupee depreciated by 12.4 per cent from 44.97 per US dollar in March 2011 to 51.34 per US dollar in January 2012.

-          Forex reserves declined to US $ 292.8 billion at end January 2012 from US $ 322.2 billion at end August 2011.

-          Oil, Gold and silver prices contribute to modest.

-          Net capital flows at US $ 41.1 billion (4.5 per cent of GDP) in the first half of 2011-12 remained higher as compared with US $ 38.9 billion (5 per cent of                  GDP) in the first half of 2010-11.

-          Imbalance in the country's BOP growing; a trade deficit of more than 8 per cent of GDP and current account deficit of more than 3 per cent.

-          FDI and external commercial borrowing increase; portfolio investment decreases.

-          Volatility in global financial markets likely to tighten availability and cost of foreign funding.

-          Indian banks maintain robustness amidst eurozone crisis.

-          Public sector banks show 19% growth in priority sector lending.

-          Credit disbursement to agriculture sector exceeded the target by 19%; over 127 lakh new farmers benefited.