india

Updated: Dec 07, 2017 22:21 IST

Three BJP-ruled states have recorded the fastest economic growth rates between 2013 and 2017, according to a study by rating firm Crisil.

While Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana witnessed the highest growth rates, opposition-ruled Kerala and Uttar Pradesh along with Akali-BJP ruled Punjab recorded the slowest growth in the corresponding period.

In its ‘States of growth’ report released on Thursday, CRISIL said that Gujarat, which is headed for an assembly election, topped in construction and manufacturing growth. Chhattisgarh and Haryana are among the best performers in manufacturing and trade, transportation and communication services.

“These states, therefore, are likely to have been more successful than others in job creation,” the agency concluded. Creation of jobs has been a political sore point for the BJP as opposition parties are accusing the ruling dispensation of implementing policies that are causing a slump in the job market.

The performances of the states were judged on the basis of three parameters – growth, inflation and fiscal health. The agency, however, did not take into account the post-demonetisation period for the want of data.

While Gujarat and Haryana stood among the top three “in terms of gross value added (GVA) of labour-intensive sectors as well as overall GDP (gross domestic product) between fiscals 2013 and 2016”, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa were the best performers among the poor states in labour-intensive sectors. They growth was also higher than the all-India average during the same period.

Three big states, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, however, couldn’t do much in employment-intensive sectors.

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan have the highest debt while Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the least indebted.

According to the rating agency, the share of Gujarat’s manufacturing sector in GVA has witnessed a steep rise from 28.4% to 34.4%-- close to the levels in China.

Interestingly, inflation in the three fastest-growing states was below the national average of 6.8%, which means there was no growth-inflation trade-off for them, said the Crisil study.