India, Feb. 2 -- Former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Sunday praised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for upholding her commitment to fiscal discipline in Budget 2026-27. Kant in a social media post on X said Sitharaman has impressively reduced the fiscal deficit to 4.3 per cent of GDP, a significant drop from the peak of 9.2 per cent in FY21. "Kudos to @nsitharaman for successfully upholding her commitment to fiscal discipline! "This achievement has not only strengthened confidence in our economy and created a more favourable environment for credit to flow to the private sector," he added. Kant said this fiscal consolidation has been paired with an increase in capital expenditure, with effective capex now at 4.4 per cent of GDP.

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