Looking at a combined fiscal deficit of over 9%, says former chief statistician Pronab Sen

One of the big problem confronting the economy is the lack of growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) estimates have been brought down across the board by economists and of course we will get the second quarter GDP number on November 29. The government has not been able to find the money to pump prime the economy. We have seen goods and services tax (GST) collections lower in October compared to October in last year by about Rs 5,000 crore. So it has not slowed down but it is actually a contraction of the government’s earnings on several quarters. Pronab Sen, former chief statistician, Ananth Narayan, professor at SPJIMR and Suyash Choudhary, head - fixed income at IDFC MF discussed the options before the government.