India’s Finance Minister Sitharaman Hospitalized, PTI Says

(Bloomberg) -- India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Monday, Press Trust of India reported, citing unnamed people.

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The 63-year-old was taken to the hospital around noon and is in a private ward, the news agency said. News agency ANI said she was admitted for a routine check-up.

A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

Her hospital visit comes just weeks before the presentation of the federal budget on Feb. 1. It is expected to be the final full-year budget before the nation heads for a general election in the summer of 2024.

Sitharaman, who became the nation’s first female finance minister in almost five decades in 2019, faces the tough task of reviving Asia’s third-largest economy amid global slowdown fears, while being fiscally prudent.

The $3.2 trillion economy grew 6.3% from a year ago in the July to September period, slowing from 13.5% in the previous three months. The deceleration comes after global central banks stepped up their fight against inflation by hiking interest rates aggressively.

--With assistance from Devidutta Tripathy.

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