The government is planning to pitch for an upgrade in its sovereign ratings from global rating agency Fitch, highlighting its structural reform initiatives and a revised fiscal consolidation framework.

Officials from the Finance Ministry are scheduled to meet representatives from Fitch Ratings on Wednesday as part of the annual review by the agency.

The Finance Ministry team is expected to be led by Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.

Despite an upgrade in its ratings by another global rating agency Moody’s, India continues to have a sovereign rating of BBB- with a stable outlook by Fitch, which is the lowest investment grade.

Fitch had last upgraded the rating from BB+ to BBB- with stable outlook on August 1, 2006 but had in 2012 changed the outlook to negative.

Economy revival

But with economic prospects showing an improvement with third quarter growth pegged at 7.2 per cent and the implementation of long pending reforms including the Goods and Services Tax, bank recapitalisation and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the Finance Ministry is now optimistic of a ratings upgrade.

The Union Budget 2018-19 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also proposed a revised fiscal consolidation framework and plans to lower government debt.

In November last year, Moody’s had for the first time since 2004, upgraded India’s sovereign bond rating to Baa2 from Baa3 with a stable outlook on the back of “continued progress on economic and institutional reforms”.

However, Standard and Poor’s has also refrained from upgrading the India’s rating from BBB- citing high government debt and low income levels.

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