Not many knew it, but the Centre's fiscal deficit touched 4.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015-16 against the budget and revised estimates of 3.9 per cent for that year. The information was contained in a report by the Economic Research Department of the State Bank of India.

SBI chief economic advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh cites Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report presented in Parliament in December, 2016 to buttress his point. Taking from these numbers, Ghosh made a case for higher fiscal deficit than 3 per cent for 2017-18, ...