By IANS,
New Delhi : Though India’s industrial recovery is well on track, the government could delay withdrawing stimulus measures, the country’s chief statistician said here Wednesday.
“The finance minister could take appropriate steps next fiscal and may defer taking a call on exiting stimulus measures as of now,” Pronab Sen, India’s chief statistician and Statistics and Programme Implementation Secretary, told reporters.
The government was expected to announce withdrawing stimulus measures in the annual budget to be unveiled Feb 26.
According to data available, the cumulative growth in the manufacturing index for the April-September 2009 period as compared to the corresponding period the previous year is 6.3 percent.
Concerning fiscal deficit, Sen said a change in the base year, would help reduce it to 6.41 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the current fiscal.
India’s fiscal deficit for 2008-09 was 6.2 percent of GDP, and stood at $70 billion (Rs.3.5 lakh crore).