Borrowing from NSSF runs risk of understating fiscal deficit number: Ind-Ra

28 Feb 2019 Evaluate

Credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that borrowing from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) runs the risk of understating the fiscal deficit number, noting that the Government has borrowed an additional Rs 500 billion from the NSSF to take its total dependence on this route to Rs 1,420 billion or 22.4 percent of the budgeted fiscal deficit in FY19.

However, the rating agency said there can be positives as well through the excess borrowings from NSSF, especially easing pressure on the benchmark 10-yr G-sec yield and keeping the cost of government borrowings through extra budgetary resources (EBR) low.

On the economic growth front, the rating agency estimated weakness in the economic growth performance in Q3FY19. GDP growth in Q3FY19 is likely to have been affected by the base effect of Q3FY18, which is being reflected in the heat map of the economy. Ind-Ra said that Q3FY19 growth is expected to slow down to 6.9%.

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