FE Editorial : Growth conundrum
The Financial Express: Feb 28 2013, 00:37 IST
Given the nature of what drives economic growth, the Economic Survey is stating the obvious when it says GDP cannot grow at a faster rate—it puts a range of 6.1-6.7% for FY14 as compared to FY13’s expected 5%—unless there is a significant pick up in levels of both savings and investment. And while savings are down to multi-year lows, the larger point here is that unless government dis-savings reduce, savings simply cannot rise to required levels. Indeed, India’s golden years of growth—FY06 to FY08—were years in which overall public sector savings (that includes government as well as its PSUs and departmental units) were rising. From a net dis-savings of 0.65% of GDP in FY03, public sector savings rose to 2.41% of GDP in FY06 and to 5% of GDP in FY08 before falling to 1.3% in FY12—data for FY13 is not out, but it’s likely to be even lower.
The problem, however, is that though savings levels have come down—and within this, the amount saved in financial instruments has fallen further as the panel on our front page shows—this is not enough to explain the collapse in growth in FY13. This is where the role of project delays comes in, and this is where the story can spin into further despair or you can have a surprise lift in growth prospects. The Survey pleasantly surprises all by using data from CMIE’s CapEx database to show the value of stalled projects is up from around R3 lakh crore two years ago to
Previous Story Column : A call for rebalancing Next Story To prosperity or perdition?
Reader's Comments| Post a Comment
Be the first to comment.
