Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with key stakeholders from the financial sector and capital markets on Thursday as part of her ongoing pre-Budget consultations. The meeting was attended by senior officials, including Finance Secretary, DIPAM Secretary, the secretaries from the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Financial Services, as well as the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
This meeting marks the seventh in Sitharaman’s series of pre-Budget consultations. Every year, the Finance Ministry holds a series of such meetings with experts, industry leaders, economists, and state representatives as part of the process to prepare the Union Budget for the upcoming financial year.
In recent weeks, the Finance Minister has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), farmers’ associations, and economists. Additionally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with prominent economists and thought leaders last week at NITI Aayog to discuss inputs for the 2025-26 Union Budget.
As per tradition, the Budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year will be presented on February 1, 2025. This upcoming budget will be Sitharaman’s eighth since assuming office as Finance Minister. There is growing anticipation surrounding the key announcements in the Budget, as it will provide guidance on the economic outlook for the remainder of the Modi government’s third term.
The 2025-26 Budget comes at a time when India is grappling with slow economic growth and subdued consumption. India’s GDP grew by just 5.4% in the July-September quarter of 2024-25, falling short of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) forecast of 7%. The growth rate for the April-June quarter was similarly below expectations.
In response to the slowing growth, the RBI has revised its growth forecast for the current financial year, lowering it to 6.6% from an earlier projection of 7.2%. The Economic Survey presented in Parliament earlier this year also projected a “conservative” GDP growth range of 6.5-7% for 2024-25, acknowledging that market expectations were more optimistic.
Despite the challenges, high-frequency indicators for the third quarter of 2024-25 (October-December) suggest that the economy is showing signs of recovery, driven by strong festival demand and robust rural consumption, according to the RBI’s latest monthly bulletin.
India’s GDP grew by an impressive 8.2% in the financial year 2023-24, maintaining its position as the world’s fastest-growing major economy. The growth rates for the previous two years were 7.2% in 2022-23 and 8.7% in 2021-22.
