Kerala Economic Review 2022, presented in the Assembly Thursday, said the state’s economy has posted a strong recovery in the last fiscal with the gross state domestic product (GSDP) at constant prices recording a robust growth of 12.01 per cent as compared to -8.43 per cent in 2020-21. According to the economic review, this is the highest growth recorded since 2012-13. At the same time, the review said, the national economy had grown only by 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. “The Sectoral composition of growth reveals positive impact across sectors. Agriculture and allied sectors registered a very credible growth of 4.64 per cent in 2021-22 compared to 0.24 per cent in 2020-21. This is the highest growth rate recorded since 2012-13. For the same period, the Industry Sector growth increased to 3.87 per cent from (-)2.82 per cent,” the review said. It said a standout feature of Kerala’s economy is the significant contribution of the services sectors, which registered a robust growth of 17.3 per cent in 2021-2022 as against (-)14.44 per cent recorded in 2020-21. Kerala’s Gross State Value Added grew at a relatively fast rate during the period from 2016-17 to 2018-19 despite the many setbacks faced by the State and also the growing signs of recession in the national economy. The sectors that contributed to this fast growth are fishing and aquaculture, manufacturing, trade, hotels and restaurants, social services mainly education and health, public services, and professional services. The turnaround in the performance of State public sector units in the chemicals and electrical sector, fresh investments in petroleum refining, and a new impetus to the manufacture of electronic components were some of the highlights of the improved performance of Kerala’s industrial sector from 2016-17. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted economic activities in the State pulling down growth rates in 2020-21 is now showing an improvement, it added. The review said Kerala is among the top States in India with a high per-capita Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of ₹1,62,992 in 2021-22, and the corresponding national average was ₹1,07,670. In other words, the average income per person in Kerala is slightly more than 1.5 times the Indian average in 2021-22. Kerala, along with Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and, is among the States with the highest incomes per capita in the country. The structure of the economy and workforce participation in Kerala is perceptibly different from the rest of India. Agriculture and allied activities employed 46.5 per cent of India’s total workforce even in 2020-21. However, in Kerala, there has been a large-scale withdrawal of workers from agriculture over the years, so its shares in total workforce participation declined to 22.56 per cent in 2020-21. The share of agriculture and allied activities in gross value added was 9.5 per cent and 16.27 per cent respectively in Kerala and India. The share of manufacturing in gross value added was only 13.11 per cent in Kerala compared to 17.86 per cent in India, said the report. At the same time, the contribution of the construction and the services sectors to the economy are higher in Kerala than in the rest of India. In 2020-21, the share of the construction sector to gross value added was 14.43 per cent and 7.65 per cent respectively in Kerala and India. The services sector accounted for 61.01 per cent of the gross value added and 47.29 per cent of the total workforce of Kerala in 2020-21. At the national level, the share of the service sector to gross value added and employment were 53.58 per cent and 29.6 per cent respectively.
