Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Finance Ministry Arvind Subramanian has been given a one-year extension and will continue in office till October 2018.

His three-year term was set to end on October 16, 2017.

“A formal announcement will be made soon,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

The move comes at a time when the Centre is working out measures to boost the economy and spur demand, as GDP growth for the first quarter fell to a three-year low of 5.7 per cent.

Sources said Subramanian had been keen to leave for the US, where his family resides, but was requested to stay back.

The extension means his term will be almost co-terminus with that of the NDA government. He had taken over as CEA in October 2014, soon after the NDA came to power.

The post had been lying vacant since September 2013, when Raghuram Rajan was appointed as the Governor of the RBI.

‘Public service’ trip Subramanian is currently on leave for “public service” from his position as the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington.

He has been closely associated with some of NDA government’s ambitious policy reforms including the Jan Dhan, Mobile and Aadhaar (JAM) trinity, GST, and focus on public spending as a means to spur the economy.

He has also put up various ideas for discussion at the policy and popular level such as his recent proposal for Universal Basic Income.

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