THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has registered a growth rate of 9.13 percent, according to the Economic Review for the year 2010-11 released on Saturday. Releasing the report, Finance Minister K M Mani said that compared to the growth rate of 8.95 per cent in year 2009-10 there has been a slight increase in the growth rate. He said the state’s growth rate was 0.9 per cent higher than the national growth rate during the corresponding period. The State’s GDP has been estimated at Rs 27,6996 crore in 2010-11 as against the provisional estimate of Rs 23,2381 crore in 2009-10. The state’s per capita income at current prices has been estimated at Rs 53,331 in 2010-11 as against Rs 46,117 for 2009-10, a growth of 15.6 per cent. The state’s revenue deficit for the year 2010-11 is 1.4 per cent. The State Government had to incur expenditure following the revision of salary and pensions for government employees. He said it was the UDF Govt which paid the salary and pension arrears though LDF had announced the pay revision. He said that the government had to bear additional commitment of Rs 1,964 crore to pay revised pension and salaries.Besides there additional dues worth Rs 2,661 crore had to be paid. Altogether, the government had to find Rs 4,825 crore additional funds to meet its commitments in the year 2010-11.Agricultural sectorMani said the contribution of agriculture sector to the state’s GDP which was 17.48 per cent in 2004-05 had fallen to 10.59 per cent in 2010-11. The area under paddy cultivation had registered a decline in 2011-11. The total paddy cultivation had shrunk to 2.13 lakh hectares compared to the 2.34 lakh hectares in 2009-10 resulting in a substantial decline in production. Compared to the production of 59,8000 MT of paddy in 2009-10, the level of paddy production in 2010-11 was only 52,2000 MT. In the tourism sector, there was 18.31 per cent growth in tourists visiting the state in 2010-11 in spite of the global economic downturn.UnemploymentThe level of unemployment continued to be a major problem. The number of job seekers registered in employment exchanges as on 30.8.2011 was 43.42 lakh, of which 25.68 lakh (59.1 percent) were female, he said.
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