Average capital investment growing in many sectors by more than 20%: Chief Economic Advisor

average capital investment in many sectors is growing at more than 20 per cent, and re are multiple indicators pointing to a momentum in economy, Chief Economic visor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday.

Also, he exuded confidence that finance ministry's target of narrowing fiscal deficit to 5.9 in current financial year and to 4.5 percent in 2025-26 would be achieved.

dressing FICCI's special interactive session on 'Indian economy@100 - Journey to Amrit Kaal', CEA said that last year many sectors saw average capital investment growing at more than 20 per cent. In fact, in hotels and hospitality sector, re was an 80 per cent growth in CAPEX in FY 23 over FY 22, he said.

" total employment in hospitality sector which was 4 crore pre-pandemic declined to 2.9 crore during pandemic years, and now it has increased to 4.5 crore exceeding pre-pandemic data. hospitality sector now employs 50 lakh people more than it employed pre-pandemic," he said.

construction sector is picking up quite strongly and foreign tourist arrival is now catching up with pre-pandemic trends. While growth rate of industry seemed to have slowed temporarily caused by high oil prices, services growth is quite robust and agriculture growth, as one would expect, is stey between 3-4 per cent, he said.

" export of goods and services toger is 24 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and imports are slightly on higher side given that India has a net tre deficit. Our overall tre exposure is more than 50 per cent of GDP. So, India is not a closed economy. India is an open economy," Nageswaran said.

On concerns of El Nino, Nageswaran said country is "well covered" in handling impact of monsoon on output and prices. "It's good to see Southwest Monsoon being active. By and large, monsoon does have an important sentiment effect on economy. But in terms of handling its impact on output and prices, we are well covered," he said.

Southwest Monsoon set in over Kerala on June 8.

On inflation, CEA said it has been moderate and that it would not be a challenge for households and cost of living in 2024.

Expressing optimism about India's growth potential, CEA said GDP growth for fiscal year 2023 was 7.2 per cent with expectations that final figure might surpass that.

India was tenth largest economy in 2014 and it is expected that country would emerge as third largest economy in 2027. India's contribution to global GDP has increased six-fold since turn of millennium.

"India is set to become third-largest contributor to global GDP this year," Nageswaran said and ded that digital transformation of India will also play a crucial role.