Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has expressed hope that the economic growth in the next fiscal year would be in the range of 7-7.5 percent. He said ‘By nature, I am an optimist, so I would remain on the higher side of it. So, if you feel that this range is too wide, personally, I would narrow it down to 7-7.5 percent and maybe on the higher side of it with higher probability’.
Arvind Panagariya has said that FY18 growth targets should not be a problem with remonetisation substantially accomplished. On the government's fiscal roadmap, he said that though the government should stick to its fiscal consolidation plan, a minor deviation from the roadmap is acceptable. He added that heavens will not fall if there is a 10-20 basis points deviation from the fiscal deficit target. He also said that a fiscal deficit target of around 3.2 percent would be comfortable, but it edging towards 3.5 percent or beyond would be a serious red flag.
The Economic Survey for 2016-17, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, pegged India’s economic growth at 6.5 percent for the current fiscal, down from 7.6 percent recorded in the last financial year, but it added that growth is expected to rebound in the range of 6.75-7.5 percent in 2017-18. The Survey’s GDP growth figure for the current fiscal is lower than 7.1 percent the Central Statistics Office had forecast earlier this month.
