India on course to meet 2017/18 fiscal deficit target -finmin official

An Indian laborer pushes heaps of bamboo on a river to be sold at a floating market – and set to be used in the construction industry – in Chakmaghat, some 56km north of Agartala, the capital of northeastern state of Tripura. (Arindam Dey/AFP)

NEW DELHI: India will meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent of GDP for the 2017/18 fiscal year ending this month, a top finance ministry official said on Thursday.
“Quite confident that fiscal deficit will be within 3.5 percent of GDP,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said on Twitter.
“We now have flash (preliminary) numbers until 28th March,” Garg said, adding, they indicate that the government was “very close” to the revised fiscal deficit and revenue deficit estimates for the current fiscal year.
On Wednesday, India reported a fiscal deficit of 7.2 trillion rupees ($110.42 billion) for April-February, which was 120.3 percent of the budgeted target for the current fiscal year.
($1 = 65.2075 Indian rupees)