FinMin officials to meet S&P on Monday

Representatives from the global ratings agency Standard & Poor's will meet officials in the Finance Ministry on Monday to take stock of India's macroeconomic and fiscal situation as well as get apprised of the pace of various reform measures being undertaken by the Narendra Modi government.

The Finance Ministry officials may be led in the meeting by outgoing Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, Business Standard has learnt. The Ministry officials will be giving a presentation to S&P representatives on a number of initiatives of the government, including reforms in state-owned banks, attempts to bring down the level of bad assets in the financial sector, financial inclusion, the thrust on increased public spending in infrastructure, and goods and service tax, among others. "The presentation will also focus on India's improving macroeconomic indicators and will emphasise on India's strong prospects during what is a volatile time for emerging economies," said an official.

The three major ratings agencies, namely S&P, Fitch and Moody's, all have the lowest investment grade rating on India's long-term sovereign debt. S&P and Fitch have a 'BBB-' rating on India with a 'Stable' outlook, while Moody's is 'Baa3' with a 'positive' outlook. Meetings between the agencies and government officials are fairly common and help the former get an understanding of the steps that the government undertakes to push economic growth.

Just last week, Moody's had said it will upgrade India's rating if the government is able to push through reforms, inflation stabilises, regulatory environment improves and infrastructure investment rises. "India's rating could be upgraded if Moody's expectations of gradual but credit positive reforms are realised in actual policy implementation and if the recent improvement in inflation, fiscal and current account ratios is sustained," it had said in a report.