Kerala Economic Review 2001

Abstract

The national economy is passing through a bad patch brought about by a combination of several unfavourable elements like deceleration of the global economy, poor performance in manufacturing and exports, fall in prices of agricultural commodities and continuing high fiscal deficit of Central and State Governments. However it is estimated that GDP grew at 5.4 per cent in 2001-02 showing considerable improvement over the low growth rate of 4 per cent during the previous year. The year under review is the final year of the Nineth Five Year Plan. Figures show that the annual growth during the Nineth Five Year Plan (1997-2000) is 4.5 per cent. This is lower that the targeted growth rate of 6.5 per cent. The key indicators of the national economy are given in Appendix 1.1.