Kerala among states with worst financial health

KERALA has been ranked among the worst performers in the recently released NITI Aayog's "Fiscal Health Index 2025".

- M S VIDYANANDAN @T'Puram

With a 25.4 FHI score, Kerala was ranked 15th among 18 major states for the period 2022-23. The silver lining is that Kerala improved its position from 16th rank in the average FHI score for 2014-15 to 2021-22.

Odisha came first with an FHI score of 67.8, followed by Chhattisgarh (55.2) and Goa (53.6). On the basis of their scores, the report categorised states into four categories: achiever, frontrunner, performer and aspirational. Besides Kerala, the aspirational states West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab face significant fiscal challenges, according to the report.

"Kerala and Punjab struggle with low Quality of Expenditure and Debt Sustainability, while West Bengal faces Revenue Mobilisation and Debt Index issues," it said.