High fiscal deficit, inflation main challenges - finance minister

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - High fiscal deficit and inflation are major challenges for India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.

He, however, said improving current account deficit was the only sliver lining for the economy.

India's fiscal deficit in the first two months of the 2014/15 financial year hit 2,408.37 billion rupees ($40.05 bln), or 45.6 percent of the full-year target, latest government data showed.

In May, India's retail food inflation stood at 9.04 percent.

Jaitley will present the federal budget next week.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar, editing by Aditya Kalra)