Economic Survey projects state’s growth rate slightly higher at 6.7%
The growth rate of Himachal Pradesh for the financial year 2024-25 is expected to improve marginally to 6.7 per cent from 6.6 per cent in the previous financial year.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who also holds the finance portfolio, laid the report of the Economic Survey for 2024-25 in the Vidhan Sabha today. “The Economic Survey presents an assessment of the challenges faced by all sectors of the economy and the government’s response in terms of new policy initiatives and the implementation of development plans,” he said.
According to advance estimates, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices for 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 146,553 crore against Rs 137,320 crore for last year.
The per capita income (PCI) for the state for 2024-25 has been pegged at Rs 2.57 lakh, indicating a growth of 9.6 per cent over last year. The PCI in 2023-24 was Rs 234,782 compared to Rs 257,212 this year at current prices. It was Rs 87,721 in 2011-12. In Himachal Pradesh, inflation has remained relatively stable and has decreased from 5 per cent in 2023-24 to 4.2 per cent in this financial year.
The tertiary sector accounted for 45.3 per cent of the Gross State Value Added (GSVA) at current prices, followed by the secondary sector at 39.5 per cent and the primary sector at 15.2 per cent. As per the advance estimates, the agriculture and allied sector is estimated to grow by 3.07 per cent against a negative growth of minus 2.63 per cent in 2023-24.
The industrial sector is expected to grow at a rate of 8.1 per cent during 2024-25 as compared to 6.5 per cent at the national level. The tourism industry, which contributes 7.78 per cent to the GSDP, is also looking up and is inching closer to the pre-Covid pandemic tourist arrivals. In 2024, the tourist footfall was over 1.81 crore as compared to 1.51 crore in 2023. Of the total hydroelectric power potential of the state, 11,290 MW has been harnessed so far.
The unemployment rate in the state for persons of all ages was 5.4 per cent. A total of 675,671 persons are registered in employment exchanges in 12 districts of the state.
The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in Himachal for all ages is 60.5 per cent, which is higher than Uttarakhand (46.2), Punjab (43.7), Haryana (37.4) and India (45.1). The reason for a higher LFPR is that agriculture is still the mainstay of the state’s largely rural economy and agricultural economies tend to have a higher LFPR.
