Fiscal deficit presents a growth challenge

A wider fiscal deficit was mainly due to front-loading of expenditure

The government is grappling with a balancing problem as growth has hit a three-year low and the fiscal deficit has touched 92 per cent of the Budget estimate in the first four months of the financial year.

A wider fiscal deficit, compared to 74 per cent of the Budget estimate in April-July of FY17, was mainly due to front-loading of expenditure. Even after that, economic growth had crashed to 5.7 per cent in April-June in FY17. The government has targeted lowering the fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017-18, from 3.5 per cent in