India to focus on growth, jobs in last full budget before 2024 election
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NEW DELHI - India will focus on economic growth and job creation, the finance minister said on Wednesday presenting the government's last full budget in parliament before a general election due next year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is projected to win.
The aim is to have strong public finances and a robust financial sector for the benefit of all sections of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman said.
"The economic agenda ... for achieving this vision focuses on three things: first, facilitating ample opportunities for citizens, especially the youth, their aspirations; second, providing strong impetus to growth and job creation; and third, providing strengthening of the macro economic stability," she said.
She added that despite a global slowdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Indian economy was "on the right track".
Sitharaman is expected to lower the government's fiscal deficit while announcing spending and other measures to keep India as one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.
Since taking office in 2014, Modi has ramped up capital spending including on roads and energy, while wooing investors through lower tax rates and labour reforms, and offering subsidies to poor households to clinch their political support.
Graphic: India real GDP growth forecast https://www.reuters.com/graphics/INDIA-ECONOMY/GDP/akpeqmzznpr/india-real-gdp-growth.jpg
Graphic: India's fiscal deficit https://www.reuters.com/graphics/INDIA-ECONOMY/FISCALDEFICIT/znvnbzzzkvl/chart_eikon.jpg
