It is a trans-economic problem.

"There will be a large economic problem to solve when India elects a new government in May 2019," wrote S Chakrabarti. Just as there was in 2014, but at that time there were macro problems, with high inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit, and low growth. This time, numbers show "reduced spending by consumers, and relatedly, the squeezing of consumer credit, flatlining incomes of rural workforce, low price realisation by farmers, slimmer order books for infrastructure companies -- that is, microeconomic issues". Not so. This time, there are macroeconomic problems as well. The fiscal deficit target was revised up to 3.4% of GDP in the interim budget from the promised 3.1%. "Call it desperation or pragmatism, but finance minister Piyush Goyal's smoke-and-mirror interim budget echoes his predecessors' wizardry in large parts," wrote R Singhal. "The deficit was Rs 8,51 lakh crore as against the revised estimate of Rs 6.34 lakh crore as per data from the Controller General of Accounts. That's 4.5% of the GDP, assuming the GDP meets the revised target," wrote D Datta. But the Economic Affairs Secretary insisted that the government will meet its target of 3.4%. How? "One is to simply delay payouts until the next financial year." "The government is squeezing public sector companies for a second interim dividend", forcing one public sector company to buy another, thus transferring money "from one government pocket to another", and forcing the Life Insurance Corporation to buy shares of failing government companies. "Indian governments have always gamed the fiscal deficit data, but never on the same scale as in 2018-19." India's GDP growth is said to be in excess of 7% per annum, but there are doubts. "Once a globally renowned institution, India's Central Statistics Office (CSO) now faces the gravest credibility crisis in its history," wrote an editorial in the Mint, because "its new series of gross domestic product (GDP) is riddled with gaps, large enough to distort final output figures". Prime Minister Modi is suspected of manipulating statistical data because of his tendency to suppress any report that is negative. India's retail inflation was a tad higher at 2.92% in April, well within the Reserve Bank target of 4%, +/- 2%, but that could be because domestic consumption is falling. India is in danger of falling into a lower middle income trap with per capita gross national income (GNI) between $1006 and $3955. Seems an infinite distance from a GNI of $12236 which would make us a high income nation. The reason is that "India's growth has mostly been driven by demand generated by 100 million-odd people at the top of the country's socio-economic pyramid. But that demand is beginning to exhaust itself". The problems are micro, macro and everything in between. We will know later.