‘Central capex seen jumping 12% over pre-pandemic level'

PUBLIC CAPEX TURNS THE CORNER. In 1st half of current fiscal, Centre spent 41% of its budgeted target for the entire year. On the other hand, the states spent 29% of their targets

MUMBAI: Indicating durable recovery to the pre-pandemic levels, the public Capex cycle has turned the corner with the Central and states capital expenditure nearly crossing FY20 levels, growing faster than the gross domestic product rate, according to a report.

While the Central Capex has already crossed the prepandemic trendline, states too should do so if the budgetary targets are met, which implies that the pandemic did not cause a major permanent loss in the government Capex in terms of trend, said a Crisil report released on Thursday.

If the budgetary targets for Capex are met by both the Centre and states this fiscal, the prepandemic decadal trend for the overall Capex will be revisited, Crisil said, adding despite a tight fiscal position, the Central Capex grew 31 per cent over the last fiscal and if the trend is maintained, it is set to overshoot by 12 per cent pre-pandemic trend level, and for the states it expects them to meet 80-85 per cent of their Capex target.