Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that "the fiscal deficit would rise to 3.5 percent from the previous estimate of 3.2 percent for the year ending March 31, 2018".

The target is fixed at 3.3 percent for 2018-2019 as against the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act's target of 3 percent, as reported by PTI.

The Sovereign rating of the country and the debt market has relevance on fiscal deficit.

A fiscal deficit occurs when a government's total expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates, excluding money from borrowings. Deficit differs from debt, which is an accumulation of yearly deficits.

Jaitley said that "the government is committed to bringing down fiscal deficit. He said that his government worked hard to reduce the fiscal deficit which stood at 4.1 percent in 2014-2015, to 3.9 percent in the following year and further to 3.5 percent in 2016-2017".