Economic Survey 2025-26: Key takeaways in charts

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (January 29, 2026) tabled the Economic Survey for the year 2025-26 in the Parliament.

Here is the key takeaways from the Economic Survey 2025-26:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The Economic Survey projected the GDP growth in the range of 6.8-7.2% for the next fiscal year on the back of the cumulative impact of reforms, and said the economy remains on a stable footing. The projection is a tad lower than the estimates of 7.4% in the current fiscal.

Labour and employment

The Survey noted that in the past nine months, employment followed seasonal trends, with unemployment rate fluctuating between 4.7% to 5.6%. Creating high quality jobs was essential to harness the demographic dividend of a young population, it said. It also noted that the number of large factories offering higher wages had increased, along with the workers engaged per factory between FY14 and FY24.

Foreign trade

India’s total exports (merchandise and services) increased by 4.34% for the period of April-December in FY ‘26 as compared to the same period FY ‘25 from to $607.9 billion to $634.3 billion. Citing the highest level of export of $825 billion during FY ‘25 which registered a year-on-year growth of 6.1%, the survey states that the ‘performance is primarily attributed to the growth of services exports, which experienced a 13.6 per cent (YoY) increase. At the same time, the country’s total imports also increased by 7.4 per cent (YoY) and stood at USD 919.9 billion.”

Trade deficit for the period of April-December in FY ‘26 widened to $96.5 billion as compared to $88.5 billion last year.

Share of exports in the GDP remained steady at 21.2%, as shown in the graphic below.

Gross GST collections

Gross GST collections for the period of April to December in FY ‘26 soared to ₹17.4 lakh crores as compared to ₹16.3 for the same period in FY ‘25. Year-on-year growth (%) slowed to 6.7% in FY ‘26 from 9.1% in FY ‘25.

Inflation

Inflation rates stabilised at 1.3% in December 2025 marking a steady decline since October 2024 (6.21%).

The trend of India experiencing lower inflation rates as compared to other countries among Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) continued in 2025 in 2025 while China, too, continued to experience price stagnation since 2023, as per the survey which cites data from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database (EMDEs include India and China).