Govt fixes fiscal deficit target at 5.9% of GDP

New Delhi, Feb 1: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday set the fiscal deficit target for 2023-24 at 5.9 per cent of the GDP, while emphasising that the government is committed to bring it below the 5 per cent-mark by 2025-26.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman said that in 2021-22, she had announced that the government would continue on its path of fiscal consolidation and would strive to bring fiscal deficit below 5 per cent of the GDP by 2025-26.

Fiscal deficit is the difference between total expenditure and revenue of a government in a year.

In the Budget for 2022-23, the fiscal deficit target was set at 6.4 per cent of the GDP, which was later revised to 6.9 per cent of the GDP.