You can spend but you can't hide.

"There is a distinct slowdown in economic growth. Employment creation, already too little, has slowed down even more," wrote Prof D Nayyar. "The good news is that inflation is moderate and world oil prices are still low." India is to grow at 7.3% in 2018 and at 7.5% in the two years after that, said the World Bank a few days back. This would be faster than China, making India the fastest growing economy in the world. The price of crude oil has risen from around $30 a barrel to hit $70, before falling back a little. Retail inflation increased from 4.88% in November to 5.31% in December, mainly due to hardening vegetable prices. However, the Index of Industrial Production jumped to 8.4% in November from 2% in October. The economy cannot revive without growth in the rural economy which is contracting, wrote Prof Himanshu. Acreage under cultivation has fallen in December so there maybe further fall in earnings. The Finance Minister is faced with a fiscal "impossible trinity" when dealing with rural distress, wrote an editorial in the Mint. He can pay higher support prices to farmers while holding retail prices, but this will raise fiscal deficit. He can control retail inflation and fiscal deficit by offering lower support prices to farmers but that will only add to anger among farmers. Or, he can pay higher prices and control deficit by letting food prices rise but that again will cause anger, especially because higher food prices hurt poor people the most. The Finance Minister cannot increase revenue by increasing indirect taxes because the Goods and Services Tax has fixed rates for all consumer goods and services. Growth in agriculture is only 2.1% and rural wages grew by 6.6% compared to 17% in 2014 and 17.6% in 2013. Higher growth rates in rural wages coincided with high retail inflation, as the Congress found to its cost in elections in 2014. To augment their income landless labor used to work in the construction sector but the slowdown in this sector has hit the rural poor very hard. 54 million rural households are landless, which means around 250 million of the rural population of 850-900 million. This is an underestimate because 84% of those who posses land are small and marginal farmers. According to a survey by Mercer, there will be an increase in hiring across industries and salaries will rise by 10% this year. Which will only increase inequality. Choices are limited for the government, wrote M Sharma. So what to do? "Counter cyclical fiscal policies" advised Prof Nayyar, meaning spend more to stimulate economic growth. Unfortunately, the bond market is signalling its displeasure at prospects of increased government borrowing, wrote T Kundu. Too many people analysing what the government does. Therein lies the problem.