The growth rate of Himachal Pradesh’s economy for the current financial year is estimated at 7.5 per cent, which is marginally higher than the national level of 7.2 per cent.
Chief Minister P K Dhumal tabled the Economic Survey report in the state Assembly here today. The GSDP of the state at current prices is likely to be about Rs 42,278 crore as compared to Rs 36,924 last fiscal year.
As a result of a poor monsoon foodgrain production fell to 1.4 million tonnes against 1.41 the previous year.
The state was 36 per cent deficent in monsoon rains in 2009.Around 90 per cent of the people live in villages in the hill state.
Fruit production fell sharply to 331,000 tonnes up to December 2009 as compared to 6.28 in the last fiscal year. Apple has the lion’s share with 81 per cent of the total fruit production. There are now 428 medium and large scale industries and about 36,313 small industries with a total investment of about Rs 8,936 crore working in the state.