Budget has elements that address rural demand; crude oil a bigger risk to economy, says CEA Anantha Nageswaran

The budget 2022 has "certain elements" that address the rural demand, Chief Economic Adviser Anantha Nageswaran told CNBC-TV18 Tuesday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her fourth budget in the Parliament, which experts touted was "growth-centric". The budget comes in face of the aftermath of the second and third waves of the coronavirus pandemic that resulted in job losses and sent inflation surging.

In his first interview after taking over as CEA, Nageswaran spoke about the elements in the budget that addresses the rural demand. "One is the allocation to the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana and the entire credit guarantee is going to be revamped, and an additional tool has been developed for that. And then we have the MSP and record procurement happening. We also have the PM Kisan Scheme, which is a demand-driven program," he counted.

So, we have enough cushion to help the demand recovery, he said. He further added that economic stress is high because of the pandemic cloud, which is still keeping people uncertain and restrained in their spending. "We would see that once the pandemic cloud lifts, I think the consumer sentiment and spending habits would come back to a normal growth pattern," Nageswaran said.