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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Singapore Asia Pacific World Search Search: India pre-poll budget 'to have populist streak' AFP - Sunday, February 15 NEW DELHI (AFP) - - India's ruling Congress party will present Monday a pre-election mini-budget that will seek to shield the economy from the global slump and provide relief for the poor, analysts say. ADVERTISEMENT The interim budget, which will form the economic bedrock of the party's campaign for general elections that must be held by mid-May, will aim to be a please-all document with a populist streak, economists say. "Their aim is to get re-elected," Deepak Lalwani, India Director of London-based brokerage Astaire and Partners, told AFP. The Congress-led government owed its unexpected election win in 2004 to India's impoverished masses who turfed out the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party after they felt bypassed by an economic boom. "There's a need to sustain our foreign trade, revive foreign investment and generate domestic demand in order to maintain our growth rates," said acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, spelling out the government's goals. Such steps "are essential to lift up the multitudes from below the poverty line," said Mukherjee, just days before the budget. Over a quarter of India's 1.1 billion people live in poverty with thousands of villages lacking drinking water, power, roads, schools and medical care. Mukherjee has stepped into the finance job in the place of Premier Manmohan Singh who holds the portfolio and is recovering from heart surgery. The government forecast the economy will grow by 7.1 percent this fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, after expanding by nine percent or more for the last three years. But most economists are looking at the economy slowing to around 5.5 percent next year, still extremely strong by Western standards but not enough to lift millions from severe poverty. Mukherjee will outline the spending plans for the 2009-10 financial year in the interim budget. But the measures can only be put into effect by the party which wins the elections. Economists believe the budget will herald a further deterioration of India's fiscal deficit -- already one of the world's worst. This year's deficit is expected to be up to 7.5 percent of gross domestic product -- triple a planned target of 2.5 percent. "They have had to throw the federal deficit out the window. They have to sacrifice it to stimulate growth at a time of such dire economic crisis (worldwide)," said Astaire and Partners' Lalwani. And slowing growth is lowering tax revenues that will only fall more steeply as the economy loses steam. The government, which has already announced two stimulus packages since the global crisis started washing up on Indian shores, is expected to swell the deficit further by announcing more relief schemes for manufacturing, construction, infrastructure and exports as well as buttress social programmes. Half a million workers were thrown out of work in the three months to December and an export lobby group forecasts the number will hit at least 1.5 million by the end of this fiscal year. Industrial production shrank by two percent in December from a year earlier as companies slashed production amid fears of inventory build-ups. "The global scenario is turning gloomier by the day and export-oriented sectors (such as textiles and jewellery) are feeling the heat," said Dharma Kriti Joshi, principal economist at Crisil credit rating agency. The interim budget is expected to be swiftly followed by more cuts in central bank interest rates to spur spending in the ailing housing, automobile and other sectors. "The good news is India continues to comfortably outperform most of its Asian neighbours except for China," said HSBC economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde. "But the period of double-digit growth and talk that the country had finally embarked on a strong, sustained period of industrial expansion is now a distant memory." Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: China's Economy China's Changan Auto to buy back B sharesReuters - 1 hour 37 minutes ago China confident of overcoming economic difficulty: WenAFP - Monday, February 16 Japan to launch 'fresh stimulus package'AFP - Monday, February 16 India pre-poll budget 'to have populist streak'AFP - Sunday, February 15 Related Articles: Business GLOBAL MARKETS WEEKAHEAD-Euro faces stress testReuters - 57 minutes ago S.Korea banks vow to use $15 bln fund, up lendingReuters - 1 hour 3 minutes ago China's Changan Auto to buy back B sharesReuters - 1 hour 37 minutes ago Israel Fin Min to hold auctions for forex depositsReuters - 1 hour 39 minutes ago US-BUSINESS SummaryReuters - 2 hours 9 minutes ago Enlarge Photo India pre-poll budget 'to have populist streak' Related Photos Slideshow Full Photo Coverage: Business & Economy Related Full Coverage China Economy china economy All Full Coverage Most Popular – Business Viewed Seductive chemicals hidden in sloppy kisses Climate change could be even worse than feared Swiss banks go back to basics Saudi king shakes up government In defence of bonuses: experts warn on banker pay caps View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! 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