Union Budget 2022: What is Economic Survey and what is its significance?

New Delhi: The finance ministry is expected to come out with a single volume Economic Survey for 2021-22 projecting a growth of around 9 percent for the next financial year. The Economic Survey 2020-21, released in January last year, had projected GDP growth of 11 per cent during the current financial year ending March 2022.

What is Economic Survey and what is its significance?

The survey, also regarded as the official report card of the union government, gives a roadmap for the country's economy and spells the way forward. The Economic Survey provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year.

The annual survey analyses the trends in infrastructure, agricultural and industrial production, employment, prices, exports, imports, money supply, foreign exchange reserves and other factors having an impact on the Indian economy and the budget.The survey also puts out economic growth forecasts, provides justification and detailed reasons why it believes the economy will expand faster or decelerate. Sometimes, it also argues for some specific reform measures.

The Survey, which is tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister ahead of the Union Budget, is being prepared by Principal Economic Advisor and other officials in absence of the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), who traditionally is the main architect of the document. Even the first Economic Survey of the Modi government presented by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July 2014 was prepared by senior Economic Advisor Ila Patnaik.

Union Budget for 2022-23 to be presented on February 1

The Budget Session of Parliament will commence on January 31 with the address of the president to both the Houses and conclude on April 8. The Union Budget for 2022-23 will be presented on February 1. The Economic Survey will be tabled on January 31 after the president's address, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a bulletin.

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