 "People at a showroom watch the live telecast of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans tabling of the Union Budget 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha, on TV sets in Kolkata")
India’s federal budget, presented earlier this week, is both a presentation of the national accounts and the only statement of government policy that we get all year. This year, the accounts made for worrying reading. The government is short of money and the economy is short of momentum. As a statement of policy, however, the budget is far more promising.
The federal borrowing program, at over $200 billion in the coming financial year (which starts on April 1 in India), is likely to strain financial markets. Meanwhile, debt has soared since the pandemic began and now hovers at around 90%
