Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P's) on Tuesday lowered the outlook on India's sovereign rating from 'stable' to 'negative', citing a deteriorating fiscal situation.
With "high government debt burden and deficits", India's "weak fiscal profile" has been the single "largest negative factor" for the sovereign ratings on India, it added. In the interim budget unveiled by Pranab Mukherjee on February 16, the government disclosed that the fiscal deficit - the gap between revenues and expenditure - had risen to 6% of GDP from the 2.5% projected in February, 2008. And this figure excludes the off-budget subsidies of Rs 95,942 crore for oil and fertiliser companies.