The Union Budget for 2025-26 comes at a strange time for the Indian economy. While there is, undeniably, pressure on the government to revive growth, it can also be argued that it may not have been as much if not for the second quarter GDP data, which showed growth slid to a seven-quarter low of 5.4%.Until the GDP data was released at the end of November, the growth picture, while patchy, was largely fair--or as former Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das used to say, the positives outweighed the negatives. However, the narrative decidedly has taken a turn for the worse since then, with the first advance estimate of GDP for 2024-25 as a whole pegging the full-year growth figure at a four-year low of 6.4%.
.png)
