Fiscal deficit widens to Rs 7.01 lakh cr in April-Dec

Fiscal deficit for the month April- December has widened to Rs 7.01 lakh crore compared to Rs 6.20 lakh crore in the previous year. Revenue deficit for the same period compared to the preceding year stood at Rs 5.36 lakh crore.Revenue spends for April- December has also increased to Rs 16.2 lakh crore against Rs 14.62 lakh crore in the previous year.Earlier in the day, Fitch Solutions, the research arm of Fitch Group, had projected the government's fiscal deficit to overshoot the budgeted target by 0.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 fiscal. Accordingly, Fitch Solutions revised its forecast for the central government fiscal deficit to come in at 3.6 per cent of GDP in FY 2019-20, from 3 per cent previously, which reflects our expectation for a wider fiscal deficit in FY 2019-20 versus FY2018-19.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2S7AI6Z