Fiscal deficit control target will be met, asserts Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley today expressed confidence that the fiscal deficit targets for this year would be met despite the various constraints, and added that the struggling manufacturing sector is showing signs of a turnaround.

"Even though the revenues have been challenged due to a slowdown in manufacturing, now it is turning around and it looks like we will be able to meet our fiscal targets," Jaitley told the media in New Delhi.

The government has pegged fiscal deficit target at 4.1 per cent of the GDP for the current year.

"Our currency is one of those two global currencies that has withstood the might of the US dollar. Most of the global currencies are under pressure," he said.

Stating that last one week had been a great learning experience for him, the finance minister said, "The sense I got in last few days is that ordinarily everything is going well with India. From a depressing slowdown in last two three years, suddenly our growth rates are likely to look up."

On the other hand, competing economies have not been so good, he said.

"Brazil faces a challenge, South Africa faces a challenge. Europe is still struggling to come out of slowdown. China, which has maintained a growth rate of over 9 per cent for three decades, is looking at a new normal," he said.