Rangarajan hopeful of current account deficit coming down to 3.5% of GDP

26 Nov 2012 Evaluate

Amid the talks of rising fiscal deficit, C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has given some comfort to the concerns and has said that India’s current account deficit should come down to around 3.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of this fiscal, aided by factors such as lower gold imports, better capital inflows and no major increase in oil prices. In 2011-12, India’s current account deficit rose to 4.2 per cent of the GDP. He has also said that efforts were also on to keep the current account deficit around the manageable level of 2.5 per cent of the GDP in the medium term.

Earlier, he had reiterated that the government will make all efforts to restrict fiscal deficit to 5.3 per cent of GDP for the current financial year, he said that “I think our attempt will be to see that we remain as close as possible to revised fiscal deficit that has been indicated by the finance ministry.”

Rangarajan also said that the rupee will continue to remain around its current levels as capital inflows, which are likely to pick up in the second half of the current fiscal, will prevent the rupee from depreciating further. He expressed his hopes that the government will use all policy instruments, including managing the food grain market, and fiscal and monetary measures to tame inflation. He further said that “We can see an improved performance for the manufacturing sector in the second half of the year. Some recent decisions relating to FDI as well as pricing of petroleum products should help change the investment sentiment. One the whole, the growth in the current year may stay between 5.5 and 6 per cent.”

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