A day after rejecting Fitch’s assessment of the Indian economy based on ‘older data’ and downgrade in credit rating outlook to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, on Tuesday, maintained that the government had already started taking ‘appropriate measures’ to shore up the economy while a slew of other steps were in the pipeline.
Responding to some of the specific issues raised by Fitch in its rating outlook downgrade analysis such as inaction in policy-making, Mr. Mukherjee said: “I have taken note of the comments, observations and ratings of Fitch. In certain areas, we are yet to take appropriate measures..”
Listing some of the measures that have already been taken, Mr. Mukherjee pointed to the improvement in FII and FDI inflows while noting that the overall impact of the initiatives would take some time to show up.
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“Certain steps have been taken in the areas of external commercial borrowing, providing long term finance for infrastructure by creating the infrastructure debt fund. These have started yielding results, but it will take some time,” he said.