Demonstrating remarkable economic resilience, Tamil Nadu had consistently achieved growth rates of 8 per cent and above since 2021-22 with the help of its progressive social policies, robust infrastructure and large skilled labour force, said the State’s Economic Survey of 2024-25 prepared by the State Planning Commission headed by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
CHENNAI: Demonstrating remarkable economic resilience, Tamil Nadu had consistently achieved growth rates of 8 per cent and above since 2021-22 with the help of its progressive social policies, robust infrastructure and large skilled labour force, said the State’s Economic Survey of 2024-25 prepared by the State Planning Commission headed by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
As a highly industrialized and urbanized economy, the State aimed to achieve a US $1 trillion economy by 2030 through strategic planning to address challenges like climate change, demographic shifts, technological disruptions, and changing employment landscapes, according to the survey released in Chennai on Thursday, on the eve of the State’s Budget presentation in the Assembly.
As a major exporter of automobile and auto components, textiles and leather, the State’s economy was responsive to global market trends, exhibiting a higher correlation with global economic fluctuations than India’s growth pattern, the survey report said.
With just 4% of India’s land area and 6% of the population, the State contributed 9.21% to the national GDP in 2023-24 and its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices reached Rs 27.22 lakh crore in 2023- 24, posting a nominal growth rate of 13.71% and a real growth rate of 8.33%, the survey said.
Tamil Nadu’s per capita income was ₹2.78 lakh, 1.6 times the national average of ₹1.69 lakh in 2022-23 had outpaced the national average making it the fourth-largest state in per capita income, which was significantly above the national average, it said.
Unlike states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, where economic activity was concentrated around a single metropolitan hub, Tamil Nadu’s economic development was more evenly distributed across multiple urban centres with cities like Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirupur, Tiruchirappalli, and Salem contributing significantly to the economy and helping bridge the urban-rural divide, it said.
The State needed to concentrate on developing rural entrepreneurship to spread growth across all the districts and leverage its demographic advantage by increasing the skill endowment of the youth, encouraging women to participate in the workforce, and promoting high-value manufacturing and services, including frontier technologies, it said.
However, the survey noted that the State had already started on this growth path with policies for the semiconductor and advanced electronics industry, creating a business environment to expand sectors like electronics, IT and ITeS, logistics, and renewable energy.
Since inflation had an impact on people, eroding their purchasing power, the State government intervened through mechanisms like subsidized supplies of select cereals, pulses, and edible oil, electricity, and income support schemes such as the ‘Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thittam, it said.
Agricultural credit served as a crucial support system for farmers in Tamil Nadu and credit disbursed through scheduled commercial banks had steadily increased from Rs 1.83 lakh crore in 2019-20 to Rs 3.58 lakh crore in 2023-24, though it remained an industrial powerhouse, contributing 11.90% to India’s manufacturing GDP and leading the nation in the number of factories, it said.
The State had developed an action plan on Climate Change for 2023-30 and set up a Rs 1,000 crore Green Fund to support projects mitigating climate change impacts. In NITI Aayog’s SDG 13 (Climate Action) Index for 2023-24, Tamil Nadu secured the top rank with a score of 81, well above the national average of 67.
