The Finance Ministry today said the NDA Government has restored the faith of investors and rating agencies on the growth outlook of the Indian economy.
“Moody’s decision continues to reaffirm that rating agencies, global investors and our own domestic businesses have faith in India’s growth outlook and our financial strength as a sovereign,” Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha told reporters here.
Rating agency Moody’s today upgraded India’s credit outlook to positive from stable, saying that the measures taken by the policymakers would enhance economic strength.
The rating agency also said it could upgrade the rating in 12-18 months time if such measures propel growth.
“The macro-economic situation has improved dramatically in last 10 months, obviously due to action that we have taken as far as fiscal policy is concerned,” Sinha said.
Reiterating that India has benefited from declining global oil prices, Sinha said, “So those macro-economic factors are very much in our favour. We have to work on (them) to ensure that sector-wise growth picks up.”
Commenting on Moody’s action, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said it will increase and improve the confidence of investors in India.
“An important component of this positive outlook is the whole change in the taxation environment which has been taking place over the last several months.
“A number of steps have been taken to position a non-adversarial tax administration,” Das said.
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said this development affirms the positive programmes and policies announced in the Budget.
“I hope the next stage would be upgradation of the ratings itself,” Mehrishi said.