It’s time to upgrade India ratings, finmin tells S&P

New Delhi: The finance ministry on Thursday sought to convince global ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) about an upgrade in India's sovereign ratings against the backdrop of reforms, which are expected to boost investment and growth.      A team of S&P analysts met top finance ministry officials, led by economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram, and discussed the economic parameters of Asia's thirdlargest economy.      "We are simply saying we have taken strong, hard decisions," Mayaram told reporters after the meeting. This country has shown its determination to put economy back on track. We believe it will happen," he said.      Fitch & S&P had cautioned India about a ratings downgrade due to the deteriorating fiscal situation. But since September, after P Chidambaram returned to the finance ministry, the government has announced a series of measures including fuel price reforms to trim the subsidy burden. "I think there is a case for an upgrade because we have taken the kind of decisions that most of countries in the world have not been able to take," Mayaram said.      The finance minister has consistently vowed that the government will make every effort to ensure that the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year remain below the estimated 4.8% of the gross domestic product. Growth is expected to pick up around 6.5% level due to the improvement in farm, industry and services sectors. The fear of ratings downgrade had prompted the government to push through some politically tough reforms which economists say will start showing results in the months ahead.      Any rating downgrade would have hurt India's efforts to attract foreign capital inflows and made oversees loans for Indian companies costly. S&P said in a report on Wednesday that India continues to struggle, grappling with low growth and relatively high inflation. It had said that economic data in early 2013 have not been encouraging. "We forecast India's GDP to grow 6% this year," the report had said.      Mayaram said there were signs of a pick since October on capital goods. "It is in anticipation of investments happening. We believe the Rs 70,000 crore worth of projects which have been approved... investments will begin to happen now," he said while referring to nod given by the cabinet committee on investment.