Economic Survey to prescribe steps to arrest declining growth

The Economic Survey to be tabled

in Parliament tomorrow is likely to suggest a series of steps

to arrest the declining GDP growth, which is estimated to be

at the decade-low of 5 per cent in the current fiscal.

  Prepared by a team of economists, led by Chief Economic

Advisor Raghuram Rajan, the Survey is likely to make a strong

case for accelerating economic reforms to neutralise domestic

and global factors which have stymied growth.

As the official assessment of the country's economy, the

Survey is customarily tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister

ahead of the General Budget. The document is viewed as being

important because it prescribes steps for the government to

deal with various economic problems, leaving the onus of

taking hard decisions on the government.

The major focus of the Survey this year is likely to be

on pushing economic growth, which has been projected by the

Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) at 5 per cent for this

fiscal, sharply lower than the original estimate of 7.6 per

cent (+/- 0.25 per cent).