Odisha looks at 8.78 pc growth in 2014-15 fiscal

After registering a sluggish growth of 2.21 per cent in 2013-14, Odisha government today said it expected the state economy to grow at 8.78 per cent during the current fiscal, while estimating the per capita income at Rs 28,384.
"The anticipated growth rate of Odisha economy during 2014-15 has been estimated as 8.78 per cent at 2004-05 prices in market price," the economic survey report (2014-15), which was placed in the state assembly today, said.
Stating that the industry and service sector have emerged as the main drivers of growth during the past decade, the report observed that the growth rate of 2013-14 was at a low of 2.21 per cent due to the adverse impact of natural calamities like cyclone Phailin and industrial recession during the last fiscal.

"Major factors like natural shocks of floods, droughts, severe cyclone and price variations in agricultural products contributed significantly to the varying degrees of growth rates, mostly negative growth rates in the last decade between 2004-05 and 2014-15," the report said adding that during the last three years agricultural sector has witnessed a very fluctuating growth trend.
However, the sector recovered strongly with a 12.3 per cent growth in 2012-13. The recovery, however, was short lived as the severe cyclone Phailin followed by heavy floods very adversely impacted coastal Odisha during 2013-14 resulting in negative agricultural growth rate.
It noted that that Odisha's economy exhibited an average annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent during the 10th plan (2002-07) period against a target of 6.20 per cent.

"The economy grew in real terms at the rate of 7.05 per cent during the 11th plan period," the report said adding that it was, however, a matter of concern due to continuing gap in the real per capita income between India and Odisha.

The per capita income of the state in 2014-15 stood at Rs 28,384 against the national average of 39,904, which indicates a huge difference in the standards of living in the state compared to the national level. The three other states that trail Odisha are Assam, UP and Bihar respectively.
As per the report, Jharsuguda leads the district wise per capita income with 8.54 per cent followed by Khurda with 7.2 per cent chart while Nabarangpur is at the bottom with 0.53 per cent.

The report mentioned that the largest contributor to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the state this fiscal was the service sector, which stood much ahead of the agriculture sector.
While the share of agriculture sector in the GSDP stands at 15.4 per cent, service sector was at 51.2 pe cent and the share of industry sector at 33.4 per cent.
The highest contributor to GSDP is Sundargarh district and the lowest contribution comes from Deogarh.