After a case in Delhi, India caused panic, Indians gathered at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital's COVID screening centre (RML).India has announced a series of measures totalling 6.3 trillion rupees (84.9 billion), which are aimed at strengthening the Covid-struck economic system. However, economists doubt that this will have any significant impact on short-term growth.Expectedly, the impact of these policies which amount to 2.8% GDP on the country’s fiscal deficit target will be relatively small.Economists noted that most of the support is in the form loan guarantees and not direct stimulus like checks paid directly to households. Some of these measures have been previously announced and are already included in calculations.India's fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal year, which ends March 2022 is 6.8% of GDP. Fiscal deficit is the difference between income and expenditure of a government. It means that the country is spending less than it earns.Radhika Rao, an economist at Singapore's DBS Group, stated that while the announcements have a significant impact on the headline, they were largely credit guarantees. This made the net fiscal impact smaller. Radhika Rao sent a note Tuesday.She said that subsidies, free food grains and support for pediatric health could have an impact on the fiscal deficit. There might be some room for improvement with a higher nominal GDP, and likely reprioritization of existing spending to reduce the chance of exceeding the fiscal deficit target.
