India will stick to fiscal deficit target

MUMBAI, Feb 11 (Reuters): India will stick to its budgeted fiscal deficit target for the coming financial year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

However, Jaitley dismissed concerns that any sharp increase in global oil prices could make it difficult for the government to attain its deficit target for the next financial year, which starts in April, an Indian English daily newspaper reported.

"I can't at this stage say that there would be any slippage. I am sure we will be able to maintain the target quite well," The Economic Times quoted the finance minister as saying.

"You can't base it on a hypothetical situation like oil prices," Jaitley said while addressing a joint news conference with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government missed its fiscal target for the first time in 2017-2018 since it came to power in May 2014.

It also announced a deficit target of 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product for 2018-19 - which was higher than the 3.0 per cent predicted previously as slow economic growth hurt revenues.