India’s economic growth is estimated at 9.2 percent for the financial year 2022, which is the highest amongst all large economies, Finance Minister Sitharaman said in her Budget 2022 speech in Parliament on Tuesday.
Complimenting the macroeconomic growth will be the focus of the Budget and it will promote fintech and technology-based development, Sitharaman said. She assured the budget will lay the foundation for economic growth over the next 25 years.
The Finance Minister said India is in a strong position to withstand challenges in the upcoming fiscal. The nation will be able to grow ahead with ‘sabka prayas,’ she added.
“Budget 2022 seeks to lay the foundation to steer the economy over Amrit Kaal of next 25 years, from India at 75 to India at 100, continuing to build on the vision of Budget 2021,” Sitharaman told the Parliament.
The FY22 GDP growth forecast of 9.2 percent is lower than the 9.5 percent growth estimated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy committee meeting held in December 2021.
“Advance estimates suggest that GDP will record an expansion of 9.2 percent in 2021-22. This implies that the level of real economic output will surpass the pre-COVID level of 2019-20,” the Economic Survey 2021-22 released on Monday said.
The survey expects private sector investment to pick as the financial system is in good position to provide support necessary for speedy revival of the economy. The government’s GDP growth forecast is also below the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projection of 9 percent and the World Bank’s projection of 8.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the Economic Survey, which highlights the state of the economy and provides suggestions for policy actions, suggested the Indian economy is well placed to take on challenges in 2022-23 given the macro-economic stability indicators.
The survey has projected the GDP to grow by 8-8.5 percent in the financial year 2023. The growth is expected to be supported by widespread COVID-19 vaccine coverage, gains from supply-side reforms and easing of regulations, robust export growth, and availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending, the survey said.
However, experts have said the forecast for the next fiscal is optimistic as it is based on several positive assumptions, some of which may not hold owing to evolving geo-political developments and the uncertain trajectory of COVID-19.