Nirmala Sitharaman, India's finance minister, leaves the ministry to present the budget at the parliament in New Delhi, India, on July 23, 2024. India's finance ministry on Tuesday lowered the country's fiscal deficit target to 4.9% for the financial year ending March 2025, a revision from 5.1% during the pre-election interim budget published back in February. That target will then fall to 4.5% or lower for the financial year ending March 2026, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during the announcements. "This is imperative for attracting foreign investment and sustaining growth," he said, adding that "unprecedented financial support" from the central bank will make the fiscal deficit target possible. "We will endeavor to maintain strong fiscal support for infrastructure over the next five years, in conjunction with imperatives of other priorities and fiscal consolidation."

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Persons: Nirmala Sitharaman, Vipul Bhowar, Narendra Modi's, Sitharaman, Hajra, Anand Rathi, Modi's Organizations: Bloomberg, Getty, India's, Waterfield Advisors, Sitharaman, Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, Stock Brokers, CNBC, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, Centre, Monitoring, BSE, U.S . Locations: New Delhi, India, Mumbai, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh