bengaluru jan 19 reuters  there is scant downside risk to the indian economy in the last months of this financial year from the omicron coronavirus variant according to economists polled by reuters who said new delhi should focus on fiscal prudence in its february budget asias thirdlargest economy is in the midst of a resurgence in coronavirus cases driven by the new variant that has forced most states to impose localised restrictions the jan 1118 poll of over 45 economists forecast 50 economic growth this quarter a sharp downgrade from the 60 given in december finishing the year at 92 compared with 95 in the previous months poll but nearly twothirds of those responding to an additional question 21 of 32 said there was limited downside to the outlook for the rest of this fiscal year which ends in march nine said it was at risk of downgrades and two said it was prone to upgrades the median growth projection for the next fiscal year was upgraded to 80 from 75 a month ago the current phase of restrictions is not as harsh as it was during the previous waves so i think omicron and the economic damage it inflicts is a janmarch story and will only be limited to this fiscal year said madhavi arora lead economist at emkay global financial services arora reckons the first quarter of the next financial year starting in april will get an extra boost once the third wave passes assuming it does the latest poll also estimated economic growth at 147 for the same quarter inflation was expected to peak at 58 this quarter and then fall remaining under the reserve bank of indias 60 upper threshold until at least the end of fiscal 202324 taking pressure off the bank for future interest rate rises indias finance minister nirmala sitharaman will present the countrys 20222023 federal budget on feb 1 providing new targets for government spending tax receipts economic growth and fiscal deficits when asked what the government should focus on 16 of 23 respondents said fiscal prudence rather than expansion despite pandemicrelated risks india and other emerging markets will have to start thinking about consolidating their covid19 year budget deficits in a global monetary environment where the us fed is starting to normalise policy said miguel chanco senior asia economist at pantheon macroeconomics we are expecting quite aggressive tightening from the fed this year and that is going to raise borrowing costs not just for india but for most ems the countrys federal fiscal deficit surged to 1351 in the aprilnovember period of the last financial year but in the current year it narrowed to 462 for the same period helped by a rise in tax collections the fiscal deficit target for next financial year was predicted to be 60 and 55 for fy 20232024 both lower than this years 68 they will be pretty conservative with spending and revenue projections said robert carnell head of asia pacific research at ing it is really more of a revenue worry from omicron so i do not think you should be spending on the offchance that omicron is bad because that sort of bakes in the fact that the targets get missed at that point reporting by prerana bhat and tushar goenka polling by devayani sathyan and md manzer hussain editing by ross finley william maclean