Chidambaram says fiscal, current acc deficits to stay within targets

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will keep both its fiscal and its current account deficits within the government's targets for the year ending in March, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Thursday.

"I have said and I repeat it: this year the fiscal deficit will be contained at below 4.8 percent no matter what requires to be done. It will be contained at below 4.8 percent. We will address both the revenue side and the expenditure side," Chidambaram said at a speech to a private bank in Mumbai.

The finance minister also reiterated the country would contain the current account deficit. Chidambaram has previously said the current account gap would reach $60 billion, well below its early estimate of $70 billion.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday had forecast the current account deficit could fall to $56 billion this fiscal year.

"If I may share a secret: I'm going to try to do it better than $56 billion," Chidambaram said.

The finance minister added India would receive a total of $25 billion via two swap windows that provide currency subsidies for banks raising money abroad.

(Reporting by Himank Sharma AND Aditi Shah; Editing by Rafael Nam)