'CAD will be down to 2.5% by FY2017'

The government aims to bring down current account deficit (CAD) to about 2.5 per cent of the GDP by March 2017, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Sunday.

“We aim to bring down (CAD) from 4 per cent of GDP going down to about 2.5 per cent by the end of 12th Plan (2012-17),” he said while speaking on ‘Mobilising Long Term Financing for Infrastructure’ on the concluding day of 46th Annual Meeting of the ADB.

The RBI, in its annual monetary policy for 2013-14, had said that high CAD was “by far the biggest risk to the economy.” Ahluwalia said the government aims to finance the CAD as much as possible through FDI and through portfolio inflows and as little as possible through debt.