Fiscal deficit likely to slip target: Survey

Finance Minister P Chidambaram will table the economic survey for the year 2004-05 today.

The Economic Survey, which is largely seen as a report card of the economy in the past year, marks the beginning of the budget process.

This will be followed by the Railway Budget on Saturday and then the Union Budget on Monday.

The survey is likely to raise issues of fiscal management such as a need for generating greater revenues and controlling unnecessary spending.

Areas of concern still continue to be the state of agriculture and creation of better infrastructure in rural areas.

India''s economy, which is still one of the fastest growing economies in the world, may see slower growth compared to last year.

The GDP is likely to grow at about 7 per cent in 2005-06.