Economic Survey 2026: What to expect and why it's important
India Today
This year's Economic Survey comes at a time when the global environment remains unpredictable. Geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices, fluctuating interest rate expectations, and uneven global growth continue to influence economic outcomes for emerging markets.
The Economic Survey 2026 will be tabled in Parliament on Thursday, setting the stage for the Union Budget 2026-27. Prepared under the guidance of Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, the Survey is the government’s annual deep dive into the state of the economy.
It explains how India performed over the past financial year, identifies the challenges that shaped growth, and lays out the opportunities that can guide policy decisions in the year ahead.
While the survey does not announce new policies, it provides the economic framework against which the upcoming budget will be interpreted.
This year’s survey comes at a time when the global environment remains unpredictable. Geopolitical tensions, volatile commodity prices, fluctuating interest rate expectations, and uneven global growth continue to influence economic outcomes for emerging markets.
The survey is expected to explain how these global headwinds affected India’s economic performance and how resilient the country has been in navigating them.
India has remained among the fastest-growing major economies, and analysts expect the Survey to highlight the factors that supported this momentum as well as the risks that could influence future stability.
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With India's e-commerce ecosystem expanding rapidly, expectations from Budget 2026 are centred on regulatory simplicity and digital infrastructure to support millions of online sellers and platforms.
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The deal aims to open up India's large and closely protected market to freer trade with the 27-nation European bloc, which is also India's biggest trading partner.
Senior EU leaders have described the proposed agreement as one of the biggest and most complex trade deals the bloc has ever attempted, with some calling it the "mother of all deals".
India-European Union trade negotiations have reached a decisive stage, with New Delhi offering major tariff cuts on European cars and both sides signalling readiness to seal a politically significant deal that could reshape trade, investment and supply chains.