Kochi: Kerala's economic growth has taken a sharp decline in the aftermath of the financial crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The State Domestic Product went down by -9.2 percent during the financial year 2020-21, states the Economic Survey report tabled in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Friday prior to the presentation of the State Budget.
(State Domestic Product, or SDP, is the total value of goods and services produced during any financial year within the geographical boundaries of a state. Negative growth in the economy occurs when the Gross/State Domestic Product reduces year over year. It is expressed as a percentage over a period of time.)
In another worrisome fact, there was a dip of Rs 16,000 in terms of per capita income. It came down from Rs 1.62 lakh to Rs 1.46 lakh — this is a decline of -9.66 percent. According to the Economic Survey, this amount is one-and-a-half times higher than the all-India average.
Service sector disappoints
The major decline in growth was reported in the service sector during the 2020-21 period, especially due to the fact that the sectors like tourism were almost non-functional then. It registered a decline of -9.25% in growth.
But in agriculture and allied areas, there was a growth of 3.81 percent based on constant prize calculation. It is quite interesting to note that it was from the -5 percent figure from 2019-20 that such a turnaround was registered in the sector, that too during the COVID-19 period.
However, the construction sector reported a 10.3 percent decline. But during the previous year of 2019-20, there was only -1% decline in growth in the sector.
In industrial production, the decline was -8.9 percent. Such a decline had been witnessing for the last three financial years. The Economic Survey claimed that such a scenario was due to the impact of COVID-19, but noted the damage was restricted to such a level due to the implementation of the Rs 20,000 bailout package.
Unemployment rate above national average
In tune with the negative growth in labour intensive areas the unemployment rate has increased.
The unemployment rate registered in Kerala among the youths in the age group of 15 to 29 years was very high during the period. It came to almost 35.4 percent. Of this, 26.5 percent belonged to male and 53.7 percent female.
The unemployment rate in Kerala among those between the age group of 15 and 59 years was 10 percent during the 2020-21 financial year. Compared to the previous years, there was one percent increase. But the all-India average was 4.8%.
Among men up to the age of 59 years, the unemployment rate recorded was 7.4%. Among women, it was 15.1% during the period. The all-India average was 4.5% for men and 4.2% for women.
Kerala is also leading in the unemployment rate for educated people. The unemployment among this category touched 16.7 percent during the period. In villages, the rate was 17 percent, while in towns it was 16.4%.
Kerala's unemployment figures were higher compared to all-India average. At the all-India level, the unemployment rate among educated people during the period was 10.1%; it was 9.9% in rural areas and 10.3% in urban areas.
