'India would be lucky to hit deficit target'

New Delhi: India would be lucky to meet a target to keep the country's fiscal deficit at 5.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday.

The government last week raised diesel prices, a politically controversal move aimed at reining in a widening fiscal deficit and reviving investor sentiment.

The government projects a fiscal deficit of 5.1 per cent of gross domestic product in India's nearly $1.8 trillion economy in the current fiscal year ending in March, while many private economists predict it to reach 6 percent or more.