Context:

• The Economic Survey presented in the Vidhan Sabha by Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh has pegged the GDP at constant prices (2011-12) in financial year 2022-23 at Rs 1,34,576 crore against a provisional GDP estimate of Rs 1,26,433 crore for 2021-22.

Key Points:

• The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Himachal Pradesh at constant prices will grow by Rs 8,143 crore year-on-year in 2022-23, while growth in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) terms will be 6.4 per cent in the current fiscal against 7.6 per cent in 2021-22. The state’s economic performance in 2022-23 will grow by Rs 18,143 crore in terms of real GDP.
• The GDP at current prices is estimated at Rs 1,95,404 crore in 2022-23 compared to 1,76,269 crore in the previous year, reflecting an absolute increase of Rs 19,135 crore, and the nominal GDP growth is estimated at 10.9% in 2022-23 against 13.5% in 2021-22.
• Notably, the Economic Survey 2022-23 was prepared by the state Economic & Statistics Department. The report, tabled on the third day of the budget session, has shown tangible growth in the agricultural and allied sectors over the years.
• The contribution of the agriculture sector to Gross State Value Added (GSVA) at current prices has increased 40% from Rs 17,767 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 24,847 crore in 2022-23 as per advance estimates. There is a marked improvement in GSVA of crops at current prices from 2018-19 to 2022-23 from Rs 10,286 crore to Rs 15,561 crore.
• As per the advance estimates for 2022-23, the GVA from the primary sector is likely to grow at a pace of 2.0 per cent.
• The economic survey showed that the service sector in Himachal is growing at a significant pace. The service sector’s contribution to the state’s GVA grew by 6.9 per cent from the previous financial year. The service sector includes jobs in the hospitality and hotel industry given the presence of large-scale tourism in the state.
• The per capita income (PCI) is also estimated to increase to Rs 2,22,227 at current prices for Financial Year 2022-23 from Rs 2,01,271 in 2021-22, showing a growth of 10.4 per cent against 13.1 per cent in the previous year.
• The economic survey shows that the tertiary industry, which includes a large chunk of the service jobs, contributed better than the primary and secondary sectors.
• Based on the advance estimates of GVA, the tertiary sector accounted for 43.6% of the state’s GVA at current prices, followed by the secondary sector at 42.7% and the primary sector at 13.7%.
• It is estimated that the manufacturing industry will perform well in the current financial as it had a maximum of 30.83% contribution to the industry sector. This was followed by construction and water supply and other utilities.
• During the current year, the manufacturing sector is expected to grow at 6.7 per cent which is the third-highest growth rate in the industry sector.