Bank Julius Baer charts fiscal prudence route

RELATED NEWS Budget '10 should focus on fiscal deficit: Madhu Kela Eco recovery fragile, stimulus must continue: Swati Piramal

Dr V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Information Officer, Bank Julius Baer, says we need to see a credible deficit reduction programme. "A credible deficit reduction programme with conservative assumptions on revenues and at the same time a time line to bring in all the below line items to above line and then planning for a deficit reduction over three years timeframe would be a good one, from the point of view of many investors including myself."

Here is a verbatim transcript of Dr V Anantha Nageswaran's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

From my perspective, I do not think I would be enthusiastic about enlarged or retained stimulus that doesn't do much to address the underlying deficit because if you look at the emerging markets as a whole our debt stock and deficit levels are much higher than the other core emerging market nation. So we need to see a credible deficit reduction programme which does not just rely on tax increases but also other measures, not only in terms of disinvestment, which is nothing but selling assets to pay for expenses, but also in terms of reducing the reach of the government in terms of administrative expenditure and so on.

So a credible deficit reduction programme with conservative assumptions on revenues and at the same time a time line to bring in all the below line items to above line and then planning for a deficit reduction over three years timeframe would be a good one, from the point of view of many investors including myself.