Bihar clocks 10.5 per cent growth rate in FY 2019-20: Economic Survey

Bihar recorded double digit growth ratein the financial year 2019-20, more than double the rate ofgrowth at the national level then.

The growth rate in Bihar in 2019-20 fiscal has beenrecorded at 10.5 per cent while it was 4.2 at the nationallevel during the period, the Economic Survey 2020-21introduced in the state legislative assembly during the daysaid.

The state had clocked 9.3 per cent growth rate in thefiscal 2018-19, the survey said, adding the increase in thesucceeding financial year was largely fuelled by the growth ofservices sector.

''Bihar recorded a double digit growth rate of 10.5 percent in 2019-20 which is higher than the growth rate of Indianeconomy at 4.2 per cent in the same fiscal,'' Deputy ChiefMinister Tarkishore Prasad said while talking to reportersafter tabling the 15th Economic Survey in the assembly.

Prasad, who also holds finance department, said thatCOVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world and so has itsnegative impact on Indian economy and Bihar too.

The survey has 13 chapters with every chapter having asection on initiatives taken by the government during thepandemic, he said.

Among the three major sectors (primary, secondary andtertiary), the tertiary sector has recorded a noticeableincrease in its share from 57.3 per cent in 2013-14 to 60.2per cent in 2019-20, the FM said.

Within the tertiary sector, two sub-sectors which hadnoticeably increased their share in Gross State Value Added(GSVA) between 2013-14 and 2019-20 are - Road transport (from4.4 to 5.9 per cent) and other services (from 10.5 to 13.8 percent), he said.

The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) stood at Rs6,11,804 crore at the current prices and Rs 4,14,977 crore atthe constant (2011-12) prices in 2019-20, he added.

The Dy CM was accompanied by Finance departmentsPrincipal Secretary S Sidhartha, Prabhat P Ghosh, Director ofthink tank ADRI which has been helping in the preparation ofsurvey.

Sidhartha made it clear that the data given in the surveyis that of fiscal 2019-20 though some data has been taken tillSeptember 2020 too.

The growth rate of the current fiscal 2020-21 will beissued separately later as it is difficult to tell about thegrowth rate of the current fiscal due to the state witnessinga 'V-shaped' growth, he said.

Bihar has consistently been a revenue surplus state since2004-05, Sidhartha said, adding that revenue account of thestate government remained in surplus during 2019-20.

Borrowing by the state government as a share of the GSDPincreased from 3.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 4.8 per cent in2019-20, the survey said.

It added that gross fiscal deficit was 2.0 per cent of theGSDP in 2019-20 which is lower than 2.7 per cent in 2018-19.

Stating that the overall contribution of agriculture andallied sector to states GSDP stood at 18.7 per cent, it saidthe state registered a substantial record production offoodgrains at 163.80 lakh tonnes in 2019-20.

Talking about labour and employment, the survey said thatdistribution of workers by status of employment suggests that57.6 per cent of male workers in Bihar were self-employedwhile the proportion of regular wage/salaried male workers inBihar was just 9.7 per cent, the lowest among all the statesin India.

Noting that Credit Deposit (CD) ratio is quite low inBihar, the survey said that CD ratio of scheduled commercialbanks in Bihar has increased from 34 per cent in 2018-19 to36.1 in 2019-20 which is lower than the national average of76.5 per cent.

The low ratio indicates that banks are not making full useof their resources for promoting economic activity in theregion from where it has mobilised deposits, it added.