India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects the union government’s fiscal deficit in FY25 to be 19bp lower than FY25(BE). Ind-Ra at the time of presentation of the FY25 budget opined that the fiscal arithmetic of the budget was realistic.The high frequency indicators point towards some slowdown in economic activity in 1HFY25, led among other reasons by slower government spending. The union government is committed to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.5% in FY26. In recent times, the union government has overachieved from its fiscal consolidation commitments made in the union budget. Ind-Ra believes these would be the larger factors which may keep the fiscal deficit in FY25 lower than budgeted.

While a lot of discussion takes place on the national front for employment/unemployment issues, the route to resolve policy issues in this space is through the Indian states. “However, informational asymmetries make it challenging to comparatively analyse the labour dynamics at the sub-national level. Against this backdrop, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) presents State Labour Force Digest, a visual and extensive snapshot of 28 states’ performance on various parameters pertaining to employment and wages through heat maps, charts and maps”, says Paras Jasrai, Senior Analyst & Economist, Ind-Ra. The period covered in this edition of the report is 2017-18 to 2023-24.

The Indian hotel sector demonstrated a strong operating performance in 2QFY25 and 1HFY25, supported by sector-wide consolidation, favourable demand-supply dynamics, and a recovering travel market. India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects the sector's momentum to continue in 2HFY25, driven by social events, and sustained growth in business and leisure travel.