The finance ministry is expected to come out with a single volume Economic Survey for 2021-22 projecting a growth of around 9 per cent for the next financial year.

The Survey, which is tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister ahead of the Union Budget, is being prepared by
Principal Economic Advisor and other officials in absence of the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), who traditionally is the main architect of the document.

Even the first Economic Survey of the Modi government presented by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July 2014 was prepared by senior Economic Advisor Ila Patnaik.

At that time the post of CEA was vacant following the appointment of Raghuram Rajan as Governor of Reserve Bank of
India. Later, Arvind Subramanian moved in as CEA in October 2014.

K V Subramanian completed his three-year term as CEA on December 6 last year. The government has already initiated the process for appointing CEA who is a Secretary rank official attached to the finance ministry.

The economy, as per the advance estimates of the National Statistical Office (NSO), is expected to record a growth of 9.2 per cent during the current fiscal, which is a tad lower than 9.5 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank.

On account of the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent nation-wide lockdown to check the spread of the virus, the
economy contracted by 7.3 per cent during 2020-21. The impact of virus on the economy was comparatively less during the current financial year as the lockdowns were local in nature and did not cause large-scale disruption in economic activity.

The Survey is expected to project a growth of about 9 per cent for the next financial year, experts said citing base
effect.