India’s fiscal deficit touched 29.9% of the full-year target at the end of July, data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Friday showed.The gap between government expenditure and revenue was significantly higher compared to the same period last year, when the fiscal deficit stood at 17.2% of the Budget Estimates (BE) of 2024-25 in the first four months, PTI reported.The fiscal deficit is the gap between the government’s total expenditure and its total revenue (excluding borrowings) in a financial year.At the end of the first quarter of FY26 (April–June), the deficit had stood at 17.9% of the annual target.In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was Rs 4,68,416 crore during April–July of 2025-26. For FY26, the Centre has projected a fiscal deficit of 4.4% of GDP, amounting to Rs 15.69 lakh crore.Meanwhile, India’s economy grew 7.8 per cent in April-June, the highest in five quarters, before the recent US tariffs took effect.Official data showed that the strong expansion in the first quarter of FY26 was largely driven by the farm sector. India retained its tag as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with China reporting 5.2 per cent GDP growth in the same period.The previous peak had been 8.4 per cent in January-March 2024, according to government figures. The agriculture sector clocked 3.7 per cent growth, sharply higher than 1.5 per cent in April-June 2024-25, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Friday.Manufacturing inched up to 7.7 per cent in Q1 FY26 from 7.6 per cent a year earlier, the data showed.