India’s balance of payments

Abstract

It is arguable whether the balance of payments is the most important factor limiting the rate of India’s economic development, but it will probably at least be agreed that it is α major limiting factor. Shortage of foreign exchange is certainly holding up production quite seriously at present and there is a danger that it will continue to restrict output and the rate of growth during the Third Plan and, looking further ahead, in the Fourth and the Fifth.²

This article appeared in The Economic Weekly, Bombay, April 22nd and 29th, 1961, and was reproduced, with a few modifications and omissions, in the Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Statistics (May 1961). It should be borne in mind that it was addressed to an Indian audience. Rs. 1 crore= 10,000,000 Rupees=£750,000