New Delhi: The government Monday sought parliamentary approval for an additional net expenditure of ₹51,463 crore in the second and final batch of supplementary demands for grants for the current fiscal, on top of the ₹44,143 crore approved in the first batch in December last year. Despite the extra expenditure, the government expects to contain … Read more
The middle class swooned with delight at the tax cuts in the budget, but the stock markets barely moved. Why so? Because finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman‘s speech about a bright future was silent on the sharp, continuing fall of Indian stock markets and the rupee ever since it became clear that Donald Trump was going … Read more
Swaminathan Aiyar, Consulting Editor, ET Now discusses the coming Budget with Maneesh Dangi of Macro Mosaic Investing. Aiyar says there is a major change happening from manufacturing to services, and he doesn’t understand why there is so much resistance to it. The growth in services seems to have benefited economies overall. Coming to the US, … Read more
The US 10-year bond yields could cross 5% once again if the US government’s fiscal deficit widens further, said Sonal Desai, chief investment officer of Franklin Templeton Fixed Income. In an interview with Nishanth Vasudevan, Desai, who oversees $211 billion of assets under management globally, spoke about what’s in store in 2025, US bond yields, … Read more
The Reserve Bank of India has announced the final redemption price for Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) issued on August 5, 2016. The central bank has fixed the final redemption price at Rs 6,938 per gram, which is 122 percent higher than the issued price. The gold bonds were issued at a price of Rs 3,119 … Read more
Santanu Sengupta, Chief India Economist, Goldman Sachs, says India’s public debt to GDP at 80% plus is one of the highest among EMs. So though India has had high growth, over a period of time. that debt to GDP number needs to consolidate below 80% and probably get closer to 75%. That is why the … Read more
Mumbai: India‘s benchmark indices soared to fresh all-time highs on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of India‘s larger-than-expected dividend payment to the government prompted traders to cover some of their bearish bets. Receding uncertainty over the BJP’s performance in the general elections also bolstered sentiment, with the NSE Nifty ending a whisker away from 23,000. … Read more
New Delhi: The central government’s fiscal deficit, in absolute terms, could be slightly better than the revised estimates for FY24, on the back of better than expected revenue receipts, an official said. In the interim Budget in February, the government pegged its FY24 fiscal deficit at ₹17.35 lakh crore, against the budget estimate of ₹17.89 … Read more
As India prepares for elections this spring, confidence about the country’s prospects seems ubiquitous. The country has just finalized a new trade agreement; it’s with a small trading bloc composed of Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland, but the headline number for new foreign investment it commits to bringing in, $100 billion, is nevertheless eye-catching. The … Read more
Pranjul Bhandari, Managing Director, Chief India Economist, Asean Economist, HSBC, says “the construction-led activity has given an alternate source of income to rural India. And all of these things come in cycles. I think we are on the upward side of a new financial cycle and things like credit growth, housing prices, construction activity all … Read more