Pace of consolidation key to India's ratings upgrade

New Delhi

THE pace of India's fiscal consolidation is vital to the country's prospects of a ratings upgrade, Standard & Poor's told Reuters on Wednesday, flagging its concerns over high and rising debt levels.

The comments from S&P's India analyst Kyran Curry come as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley faces pressure to cut taxes and hike spending in his annual budget next week - even at the cost of an earlier promise to trim the fiscal gap to 3 per cent of gross domestic product(GDP) in 2017/18 from the 3.5 per cent budgeted this year.