INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - 1^st April To 15^th April - 2009

FISCAL DEFICIT REACHES 94% OF ANNUAL TARGET

Fiscal deficit - the gap between the government's receipts and spending - reached 94% of the upwardly revised annual target in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the government’s auditor said. Acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had on February 16 revised the fiscal deficit target for 2008-09 to 6% of the total value of the country’s economic output or gross domestic product, up from the 2.5% estimated at the beginning of the year.