How large is the primary deficit?
Union Budget · released 1 Feb 2026 · next due by 1 Feb 2027
| Period | Value (% of GDP) |
|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 1.4 |
| 2023-24 | 2.0 |
| 2022-23 | 3.0 |
| 2021-22 | 3.3 |
| 2020-21 | 5.8 |
| 2019-20 | 1.6 |
Use in your answer
The Union government's primary deficit was 1.4% of GDP in 2024-25 (Actuals), compared with 2.0% of GDP in 2023-24. Source: Ministry of Finance, Budget at a Glance 2026-27.
Cite as: Union Budget, Budget at a Glance 2026-27 (Ministry of Finance), 2024-25
What this shows
- The primary deficit was 1.4% of GDP in 2024-25 (Actuals, Budget at a Glance 2026-27), down from 5.8% in 2020-21.
- 2025-26 is a Revised Estimate of 0.8% and 2026-27 a Budget Estimate of 0.7%. Neither is an outcome yet: label which kind of figure you cite.
- Interest payments, ₹11,15,575 crore in 2024-25, are the gap between it and the fiscal deficit (4.8% of GDP that year).
Cite this
Cite a fixed version from every published version below.
Source and method
What exactly is measured
Union government primary deficit (fiscal deficit less interest payments) as a share of GDP: borrowing for everything except servicing past debt. Only Actuals are shown, each read from the Budget at a Glance published two years later; Budget and Revised Estimates are forecasts and are not mixed in. Ratios are as published, against the GDP estimates current at each Budget (2011-12 base).
History: every published version
Each time the source changes this series we archive the full series as it stood, with an archived copy of the source, and never delete an old version. Each version has a permanent page you can cite. Recorded since 18 Oct 2026: 1 version.
No figure in this series has been revised since we began recording on 18 Oct 2026.
- 6 periods, latest 2024-25: 1.4% of GDP · first snapshotArchived source
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Release notes (3)
- 1.4%2024-25 Budget Estimate, Budget 2024-25
- 1.3%2024-25 Revised Estimate, Budget 2025-26
- 1.4%2024-25 Actuals, Budget 2026-27
Get the data
Use it in Excel, Python or R
Excel (Data → From Web): https://india.tf/c/gov-primdef-036/data.csv
Python: pandas.read_csv("https://india.tf/c/gov-primdef-036/data.csv")
R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/gov-primdef-036/data.csv")
All statistics: /api/index.json. Free to reuse with attribution (GODL-India).
