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
New Delhi: The government is likely to stay on the fiscal course-correction glide path in the interim budget for FY25, shunning populist spending or incentives ahead of the summer general election, said people aware of deliberations on the subject. The post-Covid-19 fiscal consolidation roadmap proposed by the government estimates the fiscal deficit at 4.5% of … Read more
Mumbai: Populism during elections invariably dents government finances, but this time around it may not be the same, thanks to strong federal revenues and a liberal dividend payment by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Goldman Sachs said. There could be some expenditure cuts as well. It is likely that a cut in public capital … Read more
New Delhi: The Centre is expected to achieve the FY23 fiscal deficit target of 6.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) despite a downward revision in national income from the budgeted levels, said a person aware of the details. The actual FY23 fiscal deficit, in absolute terms, will likely be slightly lower than the revised estimate … Read more
The Centre’s fiscal deficit hit 82.8% of the revised estimate (RE) until February this fiscal year, just a notch higher than the 82.7% a year before, according to the official data released on Tuesday. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit hit ₹14.54 lakh crore in the first 11 months of FY23, against Rs 13.17 lakh … Read more
“Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a surprise-free Budget for FY23-24, aimed at driving economic growth in a global scenario, where a recession looms for most of the large economies,” says Gurmeet Singh Chawla, Director, Master Capital Services Limited. In an interview with ETMarkets, Chawla said: “One of the sectors that can possibly offer high returns … Read more
The budget has ticked most of the boxes and dealt with the pre-budget expectations adequately. For the first time, the tax to GDP ratio has moved to double digits, an achievement we should not fail to consider. A lot of tax buoyancy witnessed recently can also be attributed to digitisation and the emphasis on compliance. … Read more