Economic Survey 2020: India overtakes UK, France to register 5th place in GDP growth

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, January 31, tabled the Economic Survey 2019-20 which also gave a detailed background of how the Indian economy fared in 2019 and the global factors that had an effect on the Indian economy. 

Chapter one of the economic survey states that the year 2019 was a difficult year for the global economy with world output growth estimated to grow at its slowest pace of 2.9 percent which is slowest since the global financial crisis of 2009, declining from a subdued 3.6 percent in 2018 and 3.8 percent in 2017, coupled with the US and China's trade and tariff war and the US and Iran's military standoff.

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The economic survey included a chart of comparison between the growth of the BRICS nations which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The chart shows that India has still managed to sustain a better growth rate as compared to other nations.

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The Economic survey also showed the inflation index from 2014-2019 which showed a steady drop in inflation till 2018 only to rise a little in 2019.

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Despite the economic downturn, the Indian economy has managed to make it back to the top five economies in the world in terms of GDP. Gaining a lead over the United Kingdom and France, the Indian economy gained the fifth spot in 2019 by making it to 2.9 trillion dollars.

What is the Economic Survey?

The Economic Survey is an annual document presented by the government mainly to review the state of the economy in the previous year while throwing light on its short-to-medium term prospects. It is seen as an important metric to gauge the effectiveness of the economic and budgetary policy of the previous year across the economy and builds a cache for priorities for the upcoming budget.

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