India needs improvement in revenue, spending -S&P

TOKYO Feb 22 (Reuters) - India's macro-economic conditions look better compared to a year ago, but Standard and Poor's wants to see improvements in both government revenue and expenditure, an S&P analyst said on Monday.

Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on India's long-term sovereign credit rating to negative from stable in February 2009.

At that time, S&P retained its BBB-minus long-term sovereign rating for India and its A-3 short-term rating. Both of these are the lowest rung of investment grade.

"Compared with about a year ago when we changed the outlook of India's BBB-minus ratings to negative, macro-economic conditions look better," Standard and Poor's analyst Takahira Ogawa told Dealing Room, a Reuters Messaging chatroom.

"However, we need to see the improvement of both revenue and expenditure of the government to reduce its fiscal deficits," he added. (Reporting by Charlotte Cooper and Masayuki Kitano)