Maharashtra's Economy Expected To Grow At 5.7% In 2019-20, Lowest In 8 Years

Maharashtra's economy is expected to grow at a rate of 5.7 per cent during 2019-20, lowest since 2012, the Economic Survey on Thursday said. This marked a fall from the last fiscal's forecast of six per cent.

The agriculture and allied activities in the state are expected to increase at 3.1 per cent in 2019-20, it said.

The nominal GDP is expected to grow by ₹2,45,791 crore in 2019-20 as compared to 2018-19. The GDP in 2019-20 is expected to be at ₹28,78,583 crore and the per capita state income in 2019-20 is expected to be ₹2,07,727.

The agriculture and allied sectors in 2018-19 witnessed negative growth (-2.2) per cent.

The revenue deficit in 2019-20 touched ₹20,293 crores, fiscal deficit ₹61,670 crore and the debt stock was at ₹4,71,642 crore, the report said.

Maharashtra witnessed an average rainfall of 73.6 per cent of the average during 2018-19.

In 2018-19, the production of food grains, fruits and vegetables fell by 27.3 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively, whereas sugarcane, oilseeds and cotton witnessed an increase by 8 per cent, 16.1 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively.

The survey said that the unemployment rate from January to March 2019 stood at 8.3 per cent as compared to 9.6 per cent in October to December 2018.

The FDI inflows in 2019-20 were ₹25,316 crore, much less as compared to ₹80,013 crore in 2018-19.

Production of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and cotton is also expected to increase by nine per cent, three per cent, one per cent and 24 per cent respectively, while the production of sugarcane is projected to fall by 36 per cent.

The irrigation potential created by minor irrigation projects was 18.96 lakh hectares and the actual utilisation was 8.49 lakh hectares (44.8 per cent) during 2018-19.

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