Faced with twin challenges of slowing growth rate and high inflation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said her Budget for the next financial year would be 'very carefully structured' to help the economy sustain growth momentum and rein in prices.
She identified high energy prices among the biggest problems facing the Indian economy in the near future.
"Specifics (of the next budget) may be difficult at this stage because it's a bit too early. But broadly, the growth priorities will be kept absolutely on the top. Even as I speak about the concerns that inflation brings before me. So, inflation concerns will have to be addressed. But then how would you manage growth would be the natural question," Sitharaman said.
Visiting Washington DC to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the finance minister was responding to a question on the next year's budget at a fire-side chat with eminent economist Eshwar Prasad at the prestigious Brookings Institute
She is scheduled to present the annual budget for the fiscal starting April 2023 on February 1.
Almost all institutional and private forecasters have cut their projections for India's GDP growth in the current 2022-23 fiscal on tighter monetary policy denting demand and the economy facing headwinds from a global slowdown.
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