India's planned fiscal deficit disappointing: S&P

India's fiscal deficit target for the year beginning April, announced by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his Budget speech, was disappointing, a senior official of Standard and Poor's said on Friday.

"We are to some extent disappointed by the size of the planned fiscal deficit. It would have been good if it was lower," Takahira Ogawa, Standard and Poor's director of sovereign ratings for the Asia-Pacific region, told Reuters.

The Budget, presented to Parliament on Thursday, raised the central government's 2001-02 (April-March) fiscal deficit estimate to 5.7 per cent of gross domestic product and forecast next year's deficit at 5.3 per cent.

"We are still looking at the numbers but it is unlikely that the view will change for the better," Ogawa, who is based in Singapore, said.

S&P has a BBB- rating on India's long-term local currency sovereign credit rating.

It has rated the long-term foreign currency debt at BB and short term foreign debt is rated at a single B. The short-term local currency rating is at A-3.

Reuters

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