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ECONOMY
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INDIA
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Partners
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Economy
- Overview:
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India's
economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture,
handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude
of support services. 67% of India's labor force work in agriculture,
which contributes 25% of the country's GDP. Production, trade,
and investment reforms since 1991 have provided new opportunities
for Indian businesspersons and an estimated 300 million middle
class consumers. New Delhi has avoided debt rescheduling, attracted
foreign investment, and revived confidence in India's economic
prospects since 1991. Many of the country's fundamentalsincluding
savings rates (26% of GDP) and reserves (now about $30 billion)are
healthy. Even so, the Indian Government needs to restore the early
momentum of reform, especially by continuing reductions in the
extensive remaining government regulations. India's exports, currency,
and foreign institutional investment were affected by the East
Asian crisis in late 1997 and 1998; but capital account controls,
a low ratio of short-term debt to reserves, and enhanced supervision
of the financial sector helped insulate it from near term balance-of-payments
problems. Exports fell 5% in 1998 mainly because of the fall in
Asian currencies relative to the rupee. Energy, telecommunications,
and transportation bottlenecks continue to constrain growth. A
series of weak coalition governments have lacked the political
strength to push reforms forward to address these and other problems.
Indian think tanks project GDP growth of about 4.5% in 1999. Inflation
will remain a worrisome problem. |
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GDP:
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purchasing
power parity$1.689 trillion (1998 est.) |
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GDP
- Real Growth Rate:
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5.4%
(1998 est.) |
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GDP
- Per Capita:
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purchasing
power parity$1,720 (1998 est) |
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CGP
- Composition by Sector:
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agriculture:
25%
industry: 30%
services: 45% (1997 |
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Population
Below Poverty Level:
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35%
(1994 est.) |
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Household
Income or Consumption by Percentage Share:
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lowest
10%: 4.1%
highest 10%: 25% (1994) |
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Inflation
Rate :
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14%
(1998 est.) |
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Labor
Force :
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NA |
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Labor
Force - by Occupation:
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agriculture
67%, services 18%, industry 15% (1995 est.) |
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Unemployment
Rate:
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NA%
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Budget:
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revenues:
$42.12 billion
expenditures: $63.79 billion, including capital expenditures
of $13.8 billion (FY98/99 budget est.) |
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Industries:
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textiles,
chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement,
mining, petroleum, machinery |
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Industrial
Production Growth Rate:
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5.5%
(1997) |
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Electricity
- Production:
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404.475
billion kWh (1996) |
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Electricity
- Production by Source:
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fossil
fuel: 80.35%
hydro: 17.8%
nuclear: 1.83%
other: 0.02% (1996) |
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Electricity
- Consumption:
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406.02
billion kWh (1996) |
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Electricity
- Exports:
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130
million kWh (1996) |
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Electricity
- Imports:
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1.675
billion kWh (1996) |
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Agriculture
- Products:
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rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes;
cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish |
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Exports:
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$32.17
billion (f.o.b., 1998) |
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Exports
- Commodities:
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textile
goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather
manufactures |
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Exports
- Partners:
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US
19%, Hong Kong 6%, UK 6%, Japan 6%, Germany 5% (1997) |
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Imports:
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$41.34
billion (c.i.f., 1998) |
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Imports
-Commodities:
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crude oil and petroleum products, machinery, gems, fertilizer,
chemicals |
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Imports
- Partners:
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US
10%, Belgium 7%, UK 7%, Germany 7%, Saudi Arabia 6%, Japan 6%
(1997) |
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Debt
- External:
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$93
billion (1998) |
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Economic
Aid - Recipient:
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$1.604
billion (1995) |
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Currency:
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1
Indian rupee (Re) = 100 paise |
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Exchange
Rates :
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Indian
rupees (Rs) per US$142.508 (January 1999), 41.259 (1998), 36.313
(1997), 35.433 (1996), 32.427 (1995), 31.374 (1994) |
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Fiscal
Year :
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1
April31 March |
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