the Chinese GDP growth is expected to be around 7.6 per cent in this financial year, though few agencies predict 7 per cent. In times of a tumultuous world economy, it is imperative to give a major push to the domestic economy. Exports must go up, imports must fall; generating employment will lead to the expansion of the consumer market — these are all well-known strategies. But increased targets are achievable if the state, the private sector, traders, farmers and other stakeholders of our economy work together to create jobs and gener- ate more resources. This is a big ask. However, there is no other way but to find what will pro- vide a major thrust to build an inclusive and dynamic economy.
cent growth rate in July 2016, to only 1.2 per cent growth rate in July 2017. Pro- duction of fertilisers, cement and crude oil registered a negative growth of -0.7 per cent, -1.3 per cent, and -1.6 per cent, against their respective growth of 2.5 per cent, 3.1 per cent and -3.9-per cent in August 2016. So, basic problems putting pressure on major economic issues and lack of an export drive to counter-balance the growing oil import deficit necessitate a major push for exports. Large economies, including the US, Europe, China, et al not significantly expanding growth means that exports from the Global South will be under extreme pressure. Even China's median growth has slowed down to an official 7 per cent this financial year. Some Chinese experts claim that this estimate is an of- ficial figure, with the actual Chinese median growth being substantially lower at around 4 per cent. Of course,
rising. The cost of fuel, especially diesel, which powers trains, trucks, tractors apart from buses, cars and two-wheel- ers plays an important role in the econ- omy. This is the reason behind the debate in the GST Council on whether fuel taxes could be considered. Since India has restricted oil reserves, the pressure of rising prices is going to con- tinue to be a problem. It is worth noting that the con- sumer price inflation index rose from 2.4 per cent in July 2017 to 3.4 per cent in August 2017 — that is by 1 per cent in one month! The wholesale price index inflation rate rose from 1.1 per cent in August 2016, to 3.2 per cent in August 2017. This is worrying because this is steadily becoming a trend in the econ- omy. An important indicator in the economy: the Index of Industrial Pro- duction (IIP) slowed down from 4.5 per
43 www.indiaparentmagazine.org
November 2017
Made with FlippingBook Annual report