TN's growth pattern balanced, achieved 8 percent growth post-Covid, says Minister

CHENNAI: State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu on Monday said that the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Tamil Nadu grew from 7.92 per cent in 2021-22 fiscal to 8.19 per cent in 2022-23 fiscal owing to the robust economic policies of the Dravidian model government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin.

Presenting GSDP estimates of the state for 2021-22 and 2022-23 fiscals calculated as per Union Statistics Ministry approved methodology, Thennarasu told reporters that the growth rate of Tamil Nadu GSDP in the years 2021-22 and 2022-23 are 7.92 per cent and 8.19 per cent at constant prices and 15.84 per cent and 14.16 per cent at current prices, respectively. The Minister was accompanied by deputy chairman of the state planning commission professor Dr E Jeyaranjan during the press interaction.

Claiming that Tamil Nadu ranked 2nd in terms of GSDP at current prices and 3rd in terms of GSDP at constant prices in 2021-22, the Minister compared the inflation index values of the state and the country and said that the inflation index values for 2021-22 and 2022-23 are 7.92% and 5.97% in Tamil Nadu, while the national values were 9.31% and 8.82%, respectively.

Estimating the GSDP of Tamil Nadu in the years 2021-22 and 2022-23 are Rs 13.43 lakh crore and Rs 14.53 lakh crore at constant prices and Rs 20.71 lakh crore and Rs 23.64 lakh crore at current prices, the Finance Minister said that the proportion of GSDP of Tamil Nadu to GDP of India in 2021-22 and 2022-23 are 8.82 per cent and 8.68 per cent at current prices and 9 per cent and 9.08 per cent at constant prices.

Attributing the state’s better inflation numbers to its universal and special Public Distribution Scheme (PDS), Jeyaranjan said that though the price of commodities were rising in the open market, the government procured them and supplied them to the people, therefore insulating them from the impact of inflation.

Per capita income of TN spiked

Crediting the increase in per capita income of Tamil Nadu, which shot up from Rs 1,54,557 in 2021-22 to Rs 1,66,727 in 2022-23, to the robust policies of the government led by Chief Minister Stalin, the Finance Minister said that the per capita income of India for the same period was Rs 92,583 and Rs 98,374 at constant prices, respectively.

Drawing a parallel between the real term economic growth rate of Tamil Nadu in the two years preceding and following COVID, the Minister said that when the rest of the country was registering negative growth during COVID, Tamil Nadu was doing marginally above the positive mark owing to the economic policies and schemes implemented by the CM led Dravidian model government and the suggestion offered by the state planning commission.