Going for growth

FOR a man opposed to “mindless populism”, India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, dwelled long on pet schemes in his maiden budget speech on July 10th. For example, he set aside $33m to erect the world’s biggest statue, of Vallabhbhai Patel, a founding father of modern India, in Gujarat; that was more than he proposed for projects on women’s safety across India. But in among the weeds of an overlong speech lurked some bold, potentially transformative ideas. Stockmarkets plunged as Mr Jaitley spoke, only to surge as his abstruse speech was decoded.

Mr Jaitley, in a yellow Nehru waistcoat, said that economic growth, which has been stuck for two years below 5%, the worst performance in a quarter of a century, would bounce back to an annual 7-8% in the next three years. He also offered goals of sharply cutting government debt, bringing down inflation, splurging on infrastructure and creating jobs. Whether any of this is credible depends on seeing more details of many reforms. Mr Jaitley was far too vague, for example, on a long-overdue goods-and-services tax to raise revenues and boost internal trade. Other brave talk of reforming subsidies and a big rural-jobs scheme came unburdened by detail.