Economics needs as much patriotism as the armed forces.

News comes that finance ministry officials are begging the credit rating agency, Fitch to increase India's rating from BBB- which is just one notch above junk status. They should be careful. Exactly one year ago officials were making the same case in front of S&P analyst, Tokohira Ogawa who listened politely while they told him about our economic growth prospects, efforts to improve revenue growth and efforts to contain the fiscal deficit. He gave no sign of what he was thinking but ended up cutting our credit rating. This time too they maybe emphasizing how they are trying to reduce our fiscal deficit by increasing prices of diesel and railway tickets, which goes by the name of " big bang reforms ", trying to increase revenue collection by extorting money through taxes on every goods and services and trying to control Current Account Deficit by facilitating a flow of hot money into shares and bonds. But trying is not the same as achieving. What if they fail, what if they stop trying because of the looming general elections or what if, God forbid, foreigners decide that more money can be made elsewhere and sell out on our shares and bonds bringing both markets crashing down along with the rupee? Besides why should anyone trust this Finance Minister who is personally responsible for the present mess because he started the NREGA program of paying the rural poor for doing nothing, leading to the food price inflation, increased salaries of useless civil servants by 80% leading to the fiscal deficit and forgave loans to farmers, encouraging them to take more loans for parties and buying consumer goods because they know they do not have to pay back? Our Current Account Deficit was 6.7% in the third quarter and Foreign Direct Investment fell to $27 billion in 2012 compared to $32 billion in 2011. The good news is that gold price has fallen from a high of $1900 a troy ounce to $1530 with signs of falling further. People will stop buying gold thus relieving some of the pressure on the CAD. The bad news is that the economy is slowing with car sales falling by 22.5% in March from 233,151 units in 2012 to 180,675 units this year. Less sales mean less tax collections, less investment by companies, less employment opportunities and slower growth. Consumer Price Index was 10.39% in March, down from 10.91% in February leading to a chorus for lowering interest rates by the usual imbeciles. Total external debt has risen from $345.5 billion to $376.3 billion at the end of December. It may not be much for a $1.9 trillion dollar economy but it is certainly much more than our foreign currency reserves at $295 billion. Non Performing Assets in our banking system has risen to 4.18% from 3.22% at the end of December. Economics also needs patriotism. Policies designed only to win elections result in calamity. We suffer.