Per capita income grew 45% under Narendra Modi regime, says CSO

The income earned by an average Indian doubled in seven years, from Rs 63,642 per year in 2011-12 to Rs 1.25 lakh in 2018-19, the first advance estimates of national income released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show. 

Under the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, per capita income has grown 45 per cent, from 2014-15 to 2018-19. In 2014-15, an average Indian earned Rs 86,647 per year. 

However, the trend in per capita income growth was not linear. The year-on-year growth in per capita income had touched its bottom in 2017-18 under the current national accounts series (base year 2011-12) at 8.6 per cent. 

In 2018-19, it has bounced back to 11.1 per cent in 2018-19, according to the advance estimate, the highest under the Narendra Modi government. 

Per capita net national income in nominal terms has been taken as an indicator representative of the average income per person. 

None of the first four years under the Modi government had clocked a per capita income growth of more than 10 per cent. The two years prior to when the current government took over recorded a near-12 per cent and 11.5 per cent growth in average income per person. 

The national accounts series for the base year started in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Experts said the low growth in per capita income in 2017-18 could be partially explained by the twin impact of demonetisation and the initial months of goods and services tax (GST) implementation.