From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: In the face of a gloomy economy at home and global crisis abroad, the lowly services sector proved a savior with the backward Northeast region registering the highest growth in this segment, the much-awaited Economic Survey released on Thursday said.
The Economic Survey for 2011-12 tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament, on the eve of presentation of the general Budget, projected a 7.6 per cent growth for the next fiscal.
The survey assumes significance in the backdrop of the global economic slowdown, high international oil prices and falling domestic investment, Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor of the Union Government, said in a press conference after the release of the survey.
The growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) during the current fiscal has been pegged at 6.9 per cent. The country’s GDP growth had decelerated to 6.1 per cent in the third quarter from 6.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal. The Economic Survey suggests that the services sector continues to remain the growth engine for the Indian Economy.
It points out that the services sector grew by 9.4 per cent, which was little higher than 9.3 per cent in the previous year.
“Overall the N-E states performed best in service sector which means a lot,” Dr Basu said. The Government will try to expand the banking sector in the under banked region to give further boost to this sector, he said.
Analysing the states’ performance in the service sector the Economic Survey 2011-12 noted that the highest growth rates in this sector were recorded in the Northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh (34.9 per cent) and Sikkim (30.1 per cent). Among other states, Goa with 20.1 per cent and Bihar with 16.6 per cent recorded high growth.
This is over and above their very high growth rates in 2008-09. Other states with higher than national average growth in the sector are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Mizoram.
The survey, while outlining the performance of major services like Tourism including hotels and restaurants, Shipping, IT and ITeS and Construction services expressed no cause for worry despite a slight moderation in services growth to 9.4 per cent (as also in 2010-11).