Patna: Bihar has registered a state gross domestic product (SGDP) growth rate of above 11 per cent during the past five years, one of the best in the country, finds a report.
In addition, foodgrains production was 60 per cent higher in 2008-09 than in 2004-05, according to the ‘Bihar Development Report’ prepared by a newspaper group.
The report, to be released on Thursday by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, says that between 2004-05 and 2008-09, the growth rate of the SGDP was 11.03 per cent, one of the best in the country.
In the year 2008-09, the SGDP growth of the state stood at 11.44 per cent, which was the best among the 18 states of the country for which the statistical data was available.
The Chief Editor of the group, Harivansh, said here in a statement that Bihar produced 122 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in the year 2008-09 against only 77.04 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in 2004-05, a whopping growth of over 60 per cent.
The average growth rate of foodgrains production in Bihar during the five-year period was 12.3 per cent, against the national average growth of only 4.5 per cent, he added.
The report says that the share of the service sector in the state’s economy grew to 60 per cent in the year 2007-08 from only 51 per cent in 2001-02.
The share of the industrial sector also grew from 11 per cent to 16 per cent in the same period.
During the period, the share of the agricultural sector to the state’s GDP dropped from 37.9 per cent to only 24.8 per cent.
Giving an example of the growth of the services sector, he said that telephone density in the state in the last five years has grown at the rate of 121.9 per cent per year, while the average national growth was only 67.4 per cent.
Neighbouring Jharkhand could only manage a telephone density growth of 21.2 per cent, he added.
The report, which has been prepared by research agency Indicus Analytics for the newspaper group, says if the state can maintain the present economic growth rate, it could achieve the size of the Maharashtra economy in the next 16 years.
The full report will be released by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in Patna on Thursday, the statement said.