Fiscal deficit seen over 5% in FY12: D&B

Research firm Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) today said that fiscal deficit--the gap between the government's expenditure and income--is likely to be over 5% for the next fiscal.

"We expect the fiscal deficit to be slightly more than 5%, above the deficit target of 4.8% for 2011 -12, as articulated by the thirteenth finance commission," D&B said in its Economy Forecast report.

D&B also said that the government was expected to take some concrete reform measures, especially in infrastructure and agriculture sectors, to address the prolonged issues hindering their growth prospects.

For the current fiscal, the government has pegged the fiscal deficit at 5.5% of the GDP.

On price rise, the report said, it expected wholesale price index inflation in February to be in the range of 7.7% and 7.9%, mainly on account of rising input costs and non-food articles inflation, coupled with rising crude oil prices.

WPI inflation for January declined to 8.23% from 8.43% in the previous month.

"With rapidly rising international crude oil prices, the upside risks to inflation have accentuated further," D&B said.

It further added, "We expect that the RBI would maintain status quo in its mid-quarter policy review scheduled in March. Notwithstanding, the challenging macro-economic environment, fiscal consolidation will be high on the budget agenda."