Govt's economic fire-fighting

A mix of good and bad in recent announcements

Some speculation about how the government planned to deal with the overheating economy has been set to rest by the government over the past few days. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government remains committed to the revised fiscal consolidation path announced in the Budget, which would require it to keep the fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the ongoing financial year. This would be accomplished, said Mr Jaitley, without any squeezing of capital expenditure — he argued that 44 per cent of budgeted capital expenditure had already been spent, and he