SINGAPORE (Standard & Poor's) April 19, 2006--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today revised the outlook on India to positive from stable. At the same time, the 'BB+/B' ratings on the sovereign were affirmed. "The outlook revision reflects improved prospects of a stabilizing debt burden based on greater effort across all levels of governments to consolidate their fiscal positions," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Ping Chew. The central and state governments (general government) have increased efforts to rein in their budget deficits. The central government's 2006/2007 Budget puts fiscal consolidation back on track, while the assessment on state governments' comes in the wake of better-than-expected fiscal outlook. The general government deficit is expected to fall below 8.0% of 2006 GDP
