Finance Minister meets financial-capital market stakeholders
New Delhi| Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met stakeholders from the financial sector and capital markets as part of a series of pre-budget consultation meetings. Finance Secretary, DIPAM Secretary and Secretaries of Economic Affairs Department and Financial Services Department were also present in the meeting. The Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India also attended this meeting. This was the seventh in a series of pre-budget consultation meetings.
The Ministry of Finance organizes several consultation meetings with experts, industry leaders, economists and state officials every year before the budget. The formal exercise of preparing the annual budget for the next financial year has started.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has so far held several meetings with various stakeholders including MSMEs, farmer unions and economists. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held talks with a group of eminent economists and thinkers in preparation for the Union Budget 2025-26 at the NITI Aayog campus last week. As per tradition, the 2025-26 budget will be presented on February 1, 2025.
The 2025-26 budget will be the eighth budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. All eyes will be on the key announcements and the government’s visionary economic guidance for the remainder of Modi 3.0’s term. This budget is to present a background of weak GDP figures and weak consumption in the economy.
The Indian economy grew at a rate of 5.4 per cent in real terms in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal year 2024-25. Quarterly growth fell well short of RBI’s forecast of 7 per cent. Even in the April-June quarter, India’s GDP had grown slower than its central bank’s estimates.
The Reserve Bank in its latest monetary policy has cut India’s growth forecast for 2024-25 from 7.2 per cent to 6.6 per cent. India’s real GDP growth rate for 2024-25 was conservatively projected to remain at 6.5-7 per cent in the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament earlier this year. During that time it was also said that market expectations are high. Real GDP growth is economic growth adjusted to inflation.
High frequency indicators for the third quarter (October – December) of the financial year 2024-25 show that the Indian economy is recovering from the recession seen in July – September. This is due to strong festive activity and continued growth in rural demand. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently reported in its monthly bulletin that India’s GDP showed impressive growth of 8.2 per cent during 2023-24, remaining the fastest growing major economy. The economy had grown at 7.2 percent in 2022-23 and 8.7 percent in 2021-22.
