India stands out as a 'shining spot' despite world economy facing challenges: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Union Budget 2017-18 speech today expressed gratitude towards the people of India for showing their strong support towards the government as a trusted custodian of public money, which has led the country towards a formal economy.

"We are moving from an informal to a formal economy," said Jaitley while ensuring more steps will be taken in the future to ensure that growth reaches all.

Extending support to the people, the Finance Minister said that the government was elected amidst huge expectations of the people and the theme of good governance.

He highlighted three big challenges for the Indian economy - the oil prices, Fed policy and global protectionism - despite the Fed's stance on rates, rising commodity prices, spectre of protectionism.

He further said it may be possible for the Reserve bank of India (RBI) to maintain a dovish stance on interest rates with the CPI under control.

"Our CPI inflation has fallen, current account deficit has reduced, FDI flows have increased while forex reserves have increased. The government is continuing on path of fiscal consolidation," he said while mentioning the IMF's estimates of the world GDP, which will grow by 3.4 percent in 2017.

"The world economy faces a challenging time, protectionism is building up and growth is slowing down. Amid this, India stands out as a shining spot," he added.

The Finance Minister further said that India's macros have stabilized, governance has improved, corruption has been eliminated while the poor are being given due focus.