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V Anantha Nageswaran, the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) of India has expressed confidence in the growth of the Indian economy. The CEA stated ‘If you run through the checklist for Indian economy, the health is pretty robust. Whether it is external debt as the share of GDP, whether it is the non-performing assets in the banking system and then coming to the bottom left, the overall inflation rate If you look at the first seven months of the year in the last several years overall headline Inflation is well-behaved.’

Further, He said that there are some specific food items that are contributing to the sharp rise in inflation but it is confined to a very small percentage of the overall consumer price index basket of goods and services. Besides, talking about the fiscal balance and capital expenditure Nageswaran said it has improved over the last seven years. He said ‘The orientation of fiscal expenditure in the last seven years or so has improved towards more of Capital expenditure and less of revenue expenditure as a proportion.’

On concerns of slowing down of the economy, he said erratic monsoon and excessive rainfall did hamper some economic activity in the second quarter. For context, India’s GDP growth has disappointed expectations, with the economy growing by just 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter of FY2024-25, significantly below the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) forecast of 7 per cent.