Jaitley cancels meeting with economists ahead of Budget

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's meeting with the economists just two days ahead of the Budget, which had generated a lot of curiosity, has been cancelled.
The 90-minute meeting with the economists on Saturday, ahead of the Budget presentation for 2016-17, was confirmed by Ministry spokesperson who described it as one to explain "economic analysis of macro-economic situation" after the presentation of Economic Survey.
The meeting generated a lot of curiosity with some commentators saying Jaitley might be meeting economists to get a grip on some quick-fix measures to package a bitter pill for the economy.
Later in the day, the spokesperson said the meeting with economists and financial experts has been called off due to pressing engagements of the Finance Minister.

Besides Jaitley, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and other senior officials of the finance ministry were scheduled to attend the meeting with economists.
The spokesperson had earlier in the day said: "CEA may brief the participants about the economic situation both global and domestic and may also brief about the economic analysis of micro and macro-economic situation made in the Economic Survey 2015-16 and the likely state of economy in the coming year and the steps to deal with the same".

Jaitley had met economists as part of pre-Budget meetings in January. During that round, he had also met industry captains, bankers, farmers and trade union representatives.

China also houses the New Development Bank headquarters of
BRICS countries - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - in Shanghai. It is headed by eminent Indian banker K V Kamath.
The AIIB yesterday released its first set of loans totalling to USD 509 million for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Tajikistan.
Outlining India's development paradigm, Jaitley said India has undertaken reforms in FDI and initiated large investments in rural infrastructure, national highway, inland waterways, shipping, power sector and smart cities, the statement said.
Jaitley also met China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and held talks on bilateral economic cooperation, upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou, and the BRICS Summit in India.

Both sides shared views on the global macroeconomic situation and agreed on the need to further coordinate in order to enhance economic growth.
On the sidelines of AGM, the Indian finance minister also held a bilateral meeting with AIIB President Jin Liqun.
Earlier speaking to China's state-run CCTV, Jaitley said the momentum of growth of the Indian economy is "sustainable for the reason that India has lot of distance in terms of economic growth to cover."
In view of this, a lot of potential exists for investments in infrastructure, urbanisation, housing, power, water and social sector, he said.
"For us today sky is the limit. That is the kind of investments we require. Therefore a lot of economic activity has to go into it. Currently, public finances are taking the lead in doing so. I am sure in due course as the economy is picking up, private sector will also boost this," he said.

"Secondly we grew in the last two years despite the fact that we had less than normal monsoon. Monsoon plays very important role in India's economic growth. This year hopefully the monsoon seems to be all right," he said.
Jaitley said if the country has a good monsoon, that itself will help boost rural economy, rural purchasing power and would add to the economy. "We grew by 7.6 per cent last year. We will certainly maintain that and with good monsoon hopefully improve upon that," Jaitley said.
On the global infrastructure and economic growth, a subject on which he is scheduled to speak at a seminar here tomorrow, Jaitley spoke about his concerns over the global economic slowdown.

"In large populated economies like India job growth is extremely important," he said. "How long will this (global slowdown) continue and how world will pull itself out of this situation and how does growth return to the world... I think it is inevitable irrespective of the theme of the conference this issue will dominate all economic discussions.