Economics
India’s Budget Must Fix a Broken Labor Market to Boost Demand
- Infrastructure spending key to supporting jobs and consumption
- Improving tax collection to provide base for greater spending
The Parliament House in New Delhi.
Photographer: T. Narayan/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has described her upcoming budget as unlike anything seen in the last 100 years.
When she presents it on Feb. 1, Sitharaman will not only aim to repair battered government finances and ensure demand recovers in an economy facing its worst contraction since 1952, she must also revive declining revenue and restore millions of jobs lost during the pandemic. That will be crucial to boosting consumer sentiment in a country where local demand contributes nearly 60% of gross domestic product.