View: Is West Bengal's economy really growing? Making sense of the state's GDP numbers

Synopsis

But while Kerala’s budget shows a contraction, West Bengal shows a sharp 8% growth in nominal GDP, against a 4.2% contraction for India. This, if it materialises, would be a remarkable achievement, especially in these pandemic times, and could have a soothing impact on West Bengal’s debt that’s at Rs 5.25 lakh crore, which is more than one-third the size of West Bengal’s economy — both FY2021 and FY2022 estimates at Rs 13.5 lakh crore and Rs 15.1 lakh crore respectively.