The Economic Survey 2022-23 prepared by a team of economists led by chief economic adviser Anantha Nageswaran analyses developments in the economy in the past year and makes projections for the following year.
Growth
India is the 3rd largest economy in the world in PPP terms and the 5th largest in market exchange rates.
GDP - The Indian economy is expected to expand 7% in real terms in 2022-23.
It has been projected to be around 6.0 to 6.8% in 2023-24 depending on the trajectory of economic and political developments globally.
Global growth is forecasted to slow to 2.7% in 2023 as per IMF’s World Economic Outlook, October 2022.
Private consumption - As a percentage of GDP, private consumption recovered to 58.4% in the second quarter of 2022-23, due to rebound in contact-intensive services such as trade and transport.
Fiscal developments
Inflation - India’s retail inflation rate peaked at 7.8% in April 2022, above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper tolerance limit of 6%.
Tax collection - The gross tax revenue registered a year-on-year growth of 15.5% from April to November 2022 driven by robust growth in the direct taxes and GST.
Capital expenditure - The Centre's capital expenditure rose to 2.5% of GDP in 2021-22.
Monetary management
Non-performing assets - The gross non-performing assets ratio of scheduled commercial banks fell to a seven-year low of 5%.
CRAR - The Capital-to-Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) remains healthy at 16.0.
Fiscal deficit - The survey expressed confidence that the Union government should be able to meet the fiscal deficit target of 6.4% of GDP for this financial year.
The government aims to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP by FY26 from a target of 6.4% of GDP in this fiscal year.
Social infrastructure and employment
Education - As a share of total GDP, the budgetary allocation for education was at 2.9%.
Health - The out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure declined to 48.2 % in 2018-19.
Food security - Schemes like PM-Kisan and PM Garib Kalyan Yojana have helped in ensuring food security and their impact was also endorsed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
India became the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer globally.
The production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes were introduced across 14 categories, with an estimated capex of Rs 4 lakh crore over the next five years, to plug India into global supply chains.
Services
The services sector is expected to grow at 9.1% in 2022-23.
India’s e-commerce market is projected to grow at 18% annually through 2025.
External sector
Exports - Merchandise exports were 332.8 billion dollars for April-December 2022 as India diversified its markets to Brazil, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
Rural internet subscriptions witnessed a 200% increase, between 2015 and 2021.
Challenges for the Global Economy
The Survey narrates about six challenges faced by the global economy.
COVID-19 related disruptions in economies
Russian-Ukraine conflict and its adverse impact along with disruption in supply chain
Central Banks led by Federal Reserve responding with policy rate hikes to curb inflation, leading to appreciation of US Dollar and widening of Current Account Deficits (CAD) in net importing economies
The prospects of global stagflation compelling the nations to protect their respective economic space, thus slowing cross-border trade
China’s slowdown induced by its policies
Loss of education and income-earning opportunities brought in by the pandemic