The economy is slowing down, foreign investors have turned wary, and there is an election to be won next year. So, will Finance Minister P. Chidambaram script Budget 2008 for votes or growth? .SHALINIS. DAGAR Mr speaker, sir, it is my privilege to present the budget for 2008-09." It's the same line that Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram will use on February 29 to open his Budget speech, but what follows thereafter may not be as cheerful as the four previous Budget speeches he has delivered as the upa government's chief financial officer. For, in a matter of a few months, things have gone from rosy pink to a cautious grey, if not pitch black. That's because the good times that made prosperity possible seem to be slacking off. Even as the latest industrial production or excise collection numbers betray telltale signs of some slowdown in the country, the global economy, too, is showing signs of stress. The International Monetary Fund has cut the forecast for global economic growth from 4.4 per cent to 4.1 per cent this year. And the impact is being felt by both in software services exporters and manufactured goods exporters; while the former have started reining in hikes and headcount, the latter have had to shed jobs by the thousands. The culprit? A near 12 per cent appreciation in the rupee versus the dollar in 2007. Add to it the rising costs in the economy