Economic Survey 2017: Key things to watch out for

New Delhi: The Economic Survey for 2017-18  will be tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at 12.15 pm on Tuesday.

The Economic Survey is the Finance Ministry's view on the annual economic development of the country that gives a broad idea on the macro-economic data, which will impact the budget decisions.

The survey, a flagship annual document of the Ministry of Finance, reviews the developments in the economy over the previous 12 months, which summarises the performance on major development programmes, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy in the short to medium term.

Here are the key things to watch out for during the tabling of Economic Survey for 2017-18.

Demonetisation

In a bid to clamp down on black money Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, taking away their legal tender status.

Analysts believe that Indian economy will grow faster than China despite the temporary slowdown created by demonetisation.

Though demonetisation has created a temporary slowdown, it is not going to change the long-term momentum of where India is going with its economic growth, the govenment has time and again contended.

This year's Economic Survey will be keenly watched and all eyes will be set upon Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian as to what he has to say about demonetisation and its impact on the economy.

GDP projections

Country's GDP growth is estimated to slow down to 7.1 percent in current fiscal from 7.6 percent in 2015-16, mainly due to slump in manufacturing, mining and construction sectors, the government data showed early this month without factoring in "volatile" post-demonetisation figures.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) projections on national income are now in line with the Reserve Bank's estimates, which too has lowered the GDP growth prospects to 7.1 percent.

On the contrary, IMF on January 16 cut India's growth rate for the current fiscal year to 6.6 percent from its previous estimate of 7.6 percent.

The cut in India's growth rates came after the World Bank decelerated India's GDP growth for 2016-17 fiscal to 7 percent from its previous estimate of 7.6 percent citing the impact of demonetisation.

Despite IMF's downward revision of India's growth rate and a slight upward revision of China's growth projections, India continues to be the fastest growing countries among emerging economies

Hence, this year's Economic Survey will be keenly watched it may give cues on estimate for this fiscal and the next financial year. Also this Survey will give a direction on how fast the government expects the economy to revive from the impact of demonetisation.

Universal Basic Income

Against the backdrop of rising concerns over technological innovations and automation could take away jobs, the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI) is doing the rounds.

Implementation of such a concept would mean that individuals would stand to get a certain amount as income.

With some sections in the global economy pushing for universal basic income concept, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant during the recent WEF Annual Meeting had said any such payout should be given only as a repayable loan

While some countries have positively reacted to this concept, there have been talks that India can also consider such a move though there has been no official word on this.

It is being widely expected that the Economic Survey may extensively come out with guidelines UBI scheme for the poor in India.