PM Modi to meet economists, govt officials Tuesday; budget, demonetisation key issues

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet economists and senior government officials at NITI Aayog on Tuesday.

It will be the first such meeting after the central government announced demonetisation on November 8.

"The theme of tomorrow's meeting is 'Economic Policy Reform, Road Ahead'. The Prime Minister will make opening remarks. There are 15 invitees who will make their presentations before the Prime Minister," a senior government official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be seeking views of the experts on budget 2017-18 

The meeting assumes significance in view of various multilateral agencies and RBI lowering growth forecast for the current fiscal. RBI has reduced the economic growth forecast to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent in its monetary policy review earlier this month.

Multilateral funding body Asian Development Bank (ADB) too slashed growth projection to 7 per cent for the current fiscal, from its earlier 7.4 per cent due to the impact of demonetisation on economic activities.

The official said the Prime Minister will also take stock of various initiatives of NITI Aayog to promote digital economy like Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana to incentivise digital payments.

The estimated expenditure on the first phase of the schemes (up to April 14, 2017) is likely to be Rs 340 crore.

With PTI Inputs