India's Fiscal Deficit Hits 132.4% Of FY20 Target In December

On Friday, government data showed that the country's fiscal deficit in the April-December period reached 132.4 percent of the Budget Estimate for the financial year 2019-20. The government had set a target of 3.3 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) as the fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal.

Fiscal deficit is the difference between total revenue and total expenditure of the government. As per data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), this gap stood at Rs 9.31 crore at the end of December.

The fiscal deficit for the current year is expected to touch 3.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the pre-budget Economic Survey released by a team headed by the Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian has stressed that there is a need to relax the fiscal deficit to push economic growth.

The survey, released on Friday, also projected India's GDP growth for the upcoming financial year 2020-21 at 6-6.5 percent.