KOCHI: Despite a renewed thrust on development by successive governments, Kerala has been ranked 14th in economic growth in a study of 16 states undertaken by ratings agency Crisil. The research report -- which looked at the performance of the states across three macroeconomic parameters of growth, inflation and fiscal health between FY13 and FY17 – shows only Uttar Pradesh and Punjab trailing the state.“By juxtaposing the growth performance of states with their fiscal positions, we have identified the top performers and the laggards in this space…. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana were the fastest-growing states between fiscals 2013 and 2017. Bringing up the bottom were Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala,” the report, States of Growth, says.On the GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate, Gujarat topped the list at 10%, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 8.1% and Haryana at 7.9%. “It is true that the GDP does not fully capture Kerala’s income picture as a big part of it comes from remittances (which is not captured by GDP). Also, Kerala enjoys better social indicators than the rest of India. That said, it has been a clear underperformer as far as the GDP growth and fiscal health are concerned. Kerala’s GDP growth has significantly trailed the national average and its debt/GDP ratio has been on a rising trajectory,” said D K Joshi, chief economist, Crisil .On the choice of 16 states for the study, he said, “We had included the non-special category states as prescribed by the finance commission, except West Bengal (due to unavailability of real GDP data) and Goa, for our analysis”. The omitted states, the special category states, are historically disadvantaged states that enjoy an unevenly high share of the central funding through the National Development Council.Inflation has also posed hurdles in Kerala’s economic growth. “Inflation was high in Telangana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala,” the study notes.The average CPI-based (consumer price index-based) inflation rate of 6.8% was higher than the country’s average rate of 6.6%. However, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh fared relatively better in easing the inflationary pressure on their economies, it shows. P 2