Government misses fiscal deficit target; higher at 3.5% in FY'18
Synopsis
The target has been fixed at 3.3 percent for 2018-19 as against the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act target of 3 percent.
The fiscal deficit will overshoot to 3.5 percent from the earlier estimate of 3.2 percent in the current fiscal, ending March 31, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
The target has been fixed at 3.3 percent for 2018-19 as against the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act target of 3 percent.
Expressing the government's commitment to bring down the fiscal deficit, Jaitley said in his Budget speech that he has endeavoured to bring down the fiscal deficit from 4.1 percent in 2014-15 to 3.9 percent in the following year and further to 3.5 percent in 2016-17.
The fiscal deficit has a bearing on sovereign rating of the country as well as the debt market.
FRBM Review Panel headed by former Revenue Secretary N K Singh had recommended debt to GDP ratio of 60 per cent by 2023 and fiscal deficit at 3 per cent for next 3 years.