PSU bank recap, growth revival, fiscal prudence: Expectations from Budget

Union Budget 2019: Given the slowdown in the economy and the possibility of oil prices moving north over the next few months on the back of likely supply cuts by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), market experts expect the upcoming Union Budget to focus on reviving growth and yet maintain fiscal prudence.

That apart, re-capitalisation of banks is also a key monitorable. The government, they say, is likely to continue with the off-budget route for carrying out infra-related spending.

“We believe that the government will focus on maintaining continuity in policy and spending on schemes allocated per the interim budget. As such, we maintain our fiscal deficit estimate at 3.5 per cent of GDP (3.4 per cent of GDP as per the interim budget), since the government has introduced the farmer income support scheme and also recently increased its scope,” wrote analysts at Morgan Stanley in a recent co-authored report led by Ridham Desai, their India equity strategist. Read Complete Article