The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley holds his 5th Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting with the leading Economists

Newdelhi:11/12/17;The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley said that despite subdued global economic growth, India’s growth remains impressive and one of the best in the world during the last three years. He said that India has recorded an average growth of 7.5% from 2014-15 to 2016-17, significantly higher as compared to the growth in the previous two years. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley was making the Opening Remarks during his 5^th Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting with the leading Economists here in New Delhi today. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley further said that the growth of Second Quarter of the Current Financial Year 2017-18 marks the reversal of the declining trend of growth witnessed in the last few quarters. The Finance Minister further said that we are following the roadmap of fiscal consolidation under which the fiscal deficit as a ratio of GDP stood at 3.9% in 2015-16 and 3.5% in 2016-17 and is budgeted to be 3.2% for the Current Financial Year 2017-18. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley further said that we have been able to achieve these fiscal targets due to focus on expenditure rationalisation, plugging of loopholes in public expenditure through Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme (DBT) & the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), and  by making innovative revenue raising efforts among others.

Along with the Union Finance Minister Shri Jaitley, the Pre-Budget Consultative Meeting with the leading Economists was also attended among others by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog, Shri Bibek Debroy, Member, Niti Ayog and Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Finance Secretary, Shri A.N. Jha, Secretary, Expenditure, Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Shri Sushil Kumar Chandra, Chairman, CBDT and other senior officers of the Ministry of Finance.

The Economists present during the aforesaid Meeting included Dr. Rathin Roy, Director, NIFP, Shri Sajid Chinoy, Chief India Economist, JP Morgan, Mr. Jean Dreze, Delhi School of Economics, Mr. Josh Felman, Economist, Shri T.N. Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard, Shri Surjit S. Bhalla MD, OXUS Investment, Shri Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, Shri Majoj Pant, Director, IIFT, Dr. Arvind Virmani, President, Forum for Strategic Initiative (FSI), Shri Himanshu, Associate Professor, CESP, JNU, Shri Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER, Ms. Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist, HSBC, Shri Sunil Jain, Managing Editor, The Financial Express, Ms Rinku Murgal, Lead Economist, World Bank, Mr. Partha Mukhopadhyay, Center for Policy Research and Mr. Rajat Kathuria, Director and Chief Executive, ICRIER among others.