Centre's fiscal deficit in H1 touches 37.3% of full-year target

The Centre’s fiscal deficit for the first half (H1) of the current fiscal year (April-September of FY23) came in at Rs 6.20 trillion, or 37.3 per cent of the full-year Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 16.6 trillion, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Monday.

This compares with a Budget balance of Rs 5.27 trillion, or 35 per cent of the full-year target for April-September of last year. The Centre is hopeful of keeping the fiscal deficit at 6.4 per cent of nominal GDP in FY23.

For H1, while capital expenditure outlay was strong