Thus public sector enterprises have exhibited continued and steady improvement in their commercial functioning since the early 1990s. Consequently, since 2003-04 onwards, total public savings have turned positive again. The savings rate of the overall public sector improved from (-) 0.6 per cent of GDP in 2002-03 to 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2006-07.
Notwithstanding the striking improvement over the past few years, it may be noted that the public sector savings rate at 3.2 per cent during 2006-07 was still less than the peak of over five per cent touched in 1976-77.