Explainers

Moody’s Forecasts Strong Growth for India in 2024 Amid Global Challenges

Moody’s projects a robust 7.2% growth for the Indian economy in 2024, driven by a rebound in household consumption and moderating inflation, according to its latest Global Macro Outlook report for 2025-26. Household consumption is expected to rise due to strong festive demand and increased rural spending, supported by favourable rainfall patterns... Read more

Global Trade to Hit Record $33 Trillion in 2024 Amid Growing Uncertainty

Global trade is nicely placed to reach an unprecedented $33 trillion in 2024, buoyed by robust growth in services and goods, as per the UNCTAD's Global Trade Update. This marks a $1 trillion increase over 2023, with services trade contributing significantly, surging by 7% and accounting for half of the expansion. While goods trade grew by a margin of 2%, it remained sufficiently below its 2022 peak... Read more

The Impact of Trump’s Return and What It Means for Politics and Society

Donald Trump’s re-election has reignited global discussions on politics, morality, and economic priorities. His unexpected victory signifies more than a political shift—it reflects the electorate’s focus on tangible economic solutions over ethical considerations... Read more

Turkey’s Central Bank Maintains Caution Amid Persistent Inflation Concerns

The Turkish Central Bank kept its key policy rate unchanged at 50% during its 10th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting this year, extending a seven-month pause on Thursday. The decision aligns with market expectations, as officials aim to tackle persistent inflation despite a recent slight uptick... Read more

High Food Prices Cast Shadow on India's Festive Season Spending

As India's festival season begins, rising prices of essential items like edible oils, onions, and tomatoes have significantly increased grocery bills, affecting consumer spending. While the festive period typically sees high demand for electronics and other goods, this year’s start has been slow. Sales of home appliances and electronics rose only 5-7%, falling short of expected... Read more

Nassim Taleb Warns of Potential Market Collapse Amid Rising Risks

Renowned economist and risk expert Nassim Taleb, famous for "The Black Swan," has issued a stark warning about a potential market collapse. In an interview with Bloomberg, Taleb highlights growing concerns over high debt levels and what he describes as... Read more

Nigeria forest and World bank commitments.jpg

Transforming Nigerian Forests into Economic Hubs: World Bank’s New Commitment

The World Bank has pledged its support to Nigeria in transforming the country's forests into economic hubs, aiming to tackle insecurity and environmental degradation. Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, announced the collaboration in Abuja alongside World Bank representatives, including Ndiame Diop, Nigeria’s Country Director, and Chakib Jenane, Regional Director for West and Central Africa Read more

India is on Track to Become the World’s Third-Largest Economy by 2031

India is on its way to becoming the third-largest global economy by 2030-31, driven by a projected 6.7% annual growth rate, according to S&P Global India. In 2024, India is already the fastest-growing large economy, with an 8.2% GDP growth rate, exceeding previous estimates Read more

British Debt Hits 100% of GDP: Challenges for Finance Minister Rachel Reeves

The UK’s public debt has reached 100% of its GDP, the highest since records began in 1993. This surge pressures Finance Minister Rachel Reeves as she prepares her October 30 budget. Public sector net debt, excluding public sector-owned banks, rose from 99.3% in July, marking the first time the debt ratio has reached this level since the early 1960s when the country was still grappling with World War II’s financial consequences.... Read more

India holds the top position for highest remittances with a unique record, according to said International Organisation for Migration.

The International Organization for Migration (I.O.M) has placed India in the top spot, as per its latest World Migration report (2024). The nation has received a record sum of $111.22 billion in remittances thereby emerging as the first country to cross the $100 billion mark... Read more

The way stock market charts are being displayed.

SEBI refines mutual fund laws to prevent tail-gating by portfolio management companies

The Securities Exchange Board of India has authorized the modifications made to Sebi (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 to curb the practices of forward-trading (front-running) in portfolio managing companies.. Read more

Government Withdraws Tax Relief for FPIs in Mauritius following Tax Treaty Revision.

A pact validated by India and Mauritius jointly on March 7 called for the end of tax reliefs enjoyed by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) from Mauritius, with the modifications catching the public eye only on April 10. Read more

1.05 billion tons of food wasted, says UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) working in close association with the British NGO Wrap has found some alarming trends based on how food waste is handled globally. Approximately 785 million people face chronic starvation while households form the biggest group of food disposers (631 million tonnes). Read more

Direct tax collection hits Rs15.60 lakh crore, reaching 80% of the revised target for FY24.

Up to this point in the current fiscal year, there has been a 20% increase in net direct tax collection compared to the previous year, with a total of Rs.15.60 lakh Crore, considering 80% of the revised budget projections for the whole fiscal year. Read more

Shows the integration of Indian economy and South African economy.

India and South Africa express contrasting views to the WTO investment agreement held in Abu Dhabi

At the recently concluded meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Abu Dhabi, India and South Africa indicated their disapproval of an investment agreement, hampering its adoption. A move of this nature will seriously affect the financing projections, costing billions of dollars. Read more

Popular card networks under RBI’s scanner

The Reserve Bank of India has recently issued a notice to a widely renowned card network provider, emphasizing on suspending all transactions using business cards for unauthorized payments made using unregistered entities. The order was announced by RBI after it discovered that Section 4 of the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act, 2007 was violated. Read more

BUDGET EXPLAINER- Expectations on Railways

India’s railways stand as one of the few sectors that has benefitted immensely from the Union Budget 2023. It received a whopping allocation of approximately Rs 2.5 lakh crores, a significant improvement since 2013 when it received Rs. 26,000 crores. A wide range of works which includes renovating various stations, assembling newer tracks, and launching Vande Bharat trains have resulted in a tremendous jump in the prices of rail stocks. Read more

BUDGET EXPLAINER- Mutual Funds - Expectations

Mutual funds (MFs) have gained significant attention over the last decade and a wider share of the Indian middle class have not just preferred saving money alone but rather engage more actively by investing in low-risk funds. The risk tolerance of a larger share of the population has improved significantly despite the economic shifts that occurred during this period. Read more

International shipping from late-2023 onwards to remain at its weakest point

The drought in Gatun Lake providing water supply to the Panama Canal and the continuous bombing of international ships by the Houthis in the Red Sea have forced shipping companies to incur massive losses in what’s labeled as a black period in supply chain logistics. Asian countries will see food imports getting costlier by 50% due to the El Nino phenomenon that resulted in droughts around the Panama Canal regions forcing the ACP to restrict the passage of ships from 40 to 21 in December 2023. Read more

Expectations on the ‘Fiscal Deficit’ before the Union Budget 2024 commences

During the presentation of the Union Budget 2023, experts predicted that ‘fiscal deficit’ targets would play a key role in debates and discussions going forward. However, the reality was entirely different. In 2024, the budget presentation occurs much earlier on Feb 1st making it an ‘interim’ one as India heads for the parliament elections between April-May. Fiscal deficit targets set by the Narendra Modi government over these years have usually gone lower from 6.71% (2021-2022), 6.4% (2022-23) and 5.9% (2023-24). Read more

How the recovery is happening in China's economy?

China gets it ‘negative’ this time – Moody’s Report

Moody's downgraded China's credit ratings from "stable" to "negative." The reduction is in response to recent economic concerns, including as a manufacturing slump exacerbated by the Covid-19 outbreak. China implemented a "Zero-Covid" policy, which stated that any report of instances would result in complete lockdowns, in an effort to stop the virus's spread thereby severely impacting economic activity. Read more

Shows how the India UK deal is going to impact both the economies

The UK-India FTA deal

India and the United Kingdom are in talks about landing some favourable deals on both sides of the spectrum. Factors such as China’s dominance in Asia and Europe’s new attempts to find a reliable trade partner excluding the Chinese have left the arena wide open for a new range of proposed deals. Read more

The LNG market amidst diplomatic rifts between India & Qatar

With a diplomatic row persisting between India & Qatar over the death sentences awarded to eight officers who formerly worked with the Indian Navy, it is important for the economic trade deals that are focused between both partners. Qatar’s net exports have gained a greater economic advantage with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) taking the lion’s share of exports by 50%. Qatar’s total exports to India figure at $17.01 billion with LNG contracts worth $8.4 billion alone. Read more

Possibilities leading to India’s downfall in the latest GHI rankings

In the latest report published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, it was recorded that India's rating in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) dropped from 107th place out of 121 nations in 2022 to 111th place out of 125 countries in 2023. Some additional reasons could be behind this. Read more

India’s records a poor rank in the Global Hunger Index 2023

According to a report published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, India's rating in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) dropped from 107th place out of 121 nations in 2022 to 111th place out of 125 countries in 2023. This highlights the continuing difficulties in tackling food security and malnutrition in the nation and points to a worsening scenario with regard to... Read more

Industrial and manufacturing policies witness a revival

India has expressed its intention to revive its industrial policy on a full scale since the Second Five-Year Plan (1956-1961). The manufacturing sector is already receiving benefits through the ‘Make in India’ initiative clubbed with increased coverage of smaller firms and big companies under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The Union Government recognized the significance of increased competitiveness of exports through the examples of South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam with their core influences remaining on consolidating their domestic manufacturing sector... Read more

Asian Development Banks makes predictions regarding the growth projections of several economies especially focusing on Indian economy.

ADB cuts India’s 2024 growth projections

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) latest growth forecast reports have placed India’s overall growth rates at 6.3% (for 2024-25) which is lower than the 6.4% set in 2022. Reasons cited for this downgrade in growth rates include increased periods of dry weather plunging overall farm produce and deficient exports. Read more

Show how New Zealand's economy is slowing inching towards a more pressurized situation.

New Zealand’s economy to remain pressurized until 2024

Geographically cut off from the rest of the world, New Zealand has amazed and intrigued the world on how its citizens survive. From being a leading dairy products exporter, they have made a name for themselves in this highly globalized world. Read more

What the Canadian investments in India mean and how are these going to impact the people of both the countries?

Canadian Investments in India’s Economy

The diplomatic relations between India and Canada are at an all-time low post-September 2023 after Canada accused India of participation in the Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing. In this context, it will be important to understand the nature of Canadian investments in India’s economy. Read more

Uncompromising shift in oil prices

The second week of September began on a startling note with Brent crude prices touching $94 for each barrel. This occurrence is mainly due to the influence of the latest collusive deal struck between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut the global supply of oil by 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) until January 2024 in addition to the 3.7 million bpd supply cuts decided by the OPEC+ group for the entire period of 2024. Read more

Onam brings a lot of bright side to Kerala but not always is free from struggles and hard times.

Onam arrives and Kerala's financial struggles

Kerala’s initiatives on welfare-oriented economic policies and the social developments it made during the changing governments have always been a subject of praise. Today, Kerala’s exchequer is on the verge of an ‘economic siege’ due to the constrained finances and fiscal management practices adopted by the state. Read more

RBI keeps on playing with the CRR requirements.

I-CRR will cease to exist

In the first week of September, the RBI reached a major conclusion of suspending its I-CRR measure post-October. The incremental cash reserve ratio (I-CRR) was formed in August (MPC meeting) with the aim of absorbing excess money supply created due to the return of ₹2,000 banknotes. During this period, it was noted that the RBI was retaining close to ₹1.8 lakh crores per day as part of its daily absorption targets. Read more

What does the IMF say about New Zealand’s economic outlook?

New Zealand's economy is in a necessary slowdown after its resurging post-pandemic recovery. The government and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) have responded by tightening monetary and fiscal policy, but inflation hasn’t dropped. This is due to various labor market constraints specifically the demand for a wage increase and the derangement of supply chains plays as additional factors. Read more

SEBI seems to take some serious decisions regarding trade settlements.

T+0 and T+1 trade settlements will soon become a reality, says SEBI

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in its latest press note has stated its intentions on completing a faster trade settlement working on a real-time basis. Settlements are a bidirectional approach focused on dispatching funds and acquiring securities or vice-versa. Read more

More and more strength building up between India and UAE and things looks to be positive in the near future.

India & the U.A.E push for stronger use of ‘auxiliary currencies’ for inter-regional transactions

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India authorized a deal to bring trade via the rupee and dirham closer under the local currency settlement system (LCSS). This deal will be a haven for all authorized open account transactions. This allows for shippers and international merchants to bill and finance according to their regional currencies thus strengthening the possibilities of a Rupee-Dirham currency trading market. Read more

US economy's credibility is on the line.

Fitch Ratings’ cutdown of US economy’s credit reliability

are a reflection of its past actions

The first week of August became a surprising witness to the declaration of the U.S. economy’s credit assessment report with Fitch Ratings assigning an ‘AA+’ rating downsizing its previous rank from an ‘AAA’ score. Read more

US credit ranking were published by the Fitch Ratings.

Fitch Ratings relegates U.S credit ranking

Fitch, a top-tier credit ratings institution has demoted the creditworthiness of the US economy from ‘AAA’ to ‘AA+’ citing economic mismanagement as the primary reason for this downfall. The only other time when the US economy faced such a hit was when the S&P Global Ratings placed an ‘AA+’ rating classification in 2011. Read more

The repo rate which acts as a tool to manage inflation through moving up or down the interest rates.

RBI’s exercises caution through its no-rate hike

The RBI’s MPC stressed continuing the pause cycle with no changes over the existing ‘Repo rate’ (at 6.50%). Projected inflation rates increased from 5.1% to 5.4% and will continue to be above the 5% (for Q1 2024-25) range due to inflated food prices. Retail inflation levels had lowered from 5.7% (March 2023) to 4.3% (May 2023) but could touch near 8% (August 2023) in the wake of rising tomato prices. Read more

How possible is it for India to reduce poverty at a pace planned way back 10-15 years?

India uplifts 39% of its population from multidimensional poverty

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in their latest publication ‘Unstacking global poverty: Data for high-impact Action’ points out that 25 nations have successfully managed in reducing their MPI rates by 50% between 2005–2021. Read more

UNDP makes serious projections regarding the multidimensional poverty in the entire world.

UNDP’s projections on multidimensional poverty across the world reflect a dark phase ahead

1.1 billion people from a total of 6 billion live under severe multidimensionally poor conditions across 110 nations. The Sub-Saharan and South Asian nations form a core majority of the poor with every 5 out of 6 households falling in these regions. This alone amounts to 923 million (83% of the global poor). Read more

De-dollarization and RBI's push for Rupee's international status has a lot to say.

De-Dollarization trend and RBI’s push for Rupee’s international status

The Russia-Ukraine war and OPEC’s latest move for oil production cuts have made advocates of the U.S. dollar largely fall back. Critics have now begun to call out the dollar’s “excessively entitled” nature and are now looking forward to boosting international trade using their own currencies. Read more

The Rupee has set to go on a forward path.

Globalizing the Rupee – The Way Forward

Increased financial sanctions imposed on Russia by the Western nations have disrupted the mode of financial transactions in an unforeseen fashion. Emerging economies have now strongly advocated for de-dollarization and international trade to be enhanced in their respective domestic currencies. Read more

SEBI pushes for more protection for extra-dicey FPIs.

SEBI advocates for greater protection for ‘extra-dicey’ FPIs

The high-risk category defines investors that own 50% or more equities in AUM held in a sole company. Minute details including the ownership arrangement, and economic and command authority features must be shared. Any high-risk FPIs with a total AUM of more than Rs 25,000 crores must also follow these directions, failing to do so will result in the particular limit set being reduced further to include more FPIs by December 2023. Read more

Tax on credit card transactions- a matter always in question.

20% TCS brought in for Credit Card transactions abroad

From July 1st onwards, any or every payout using credit cards made by Indian citizens abroad would be taxed under the LRS and FEMA guidelines at 20% TCS which is a revision from the earlier 5% TCS since 2020. Indian nationals can transact up to $250,000 (~ Rs 2.10 crores) per annum abroad without requiring any sanction from the RBI. Read more

Current Account Deficit (CAD) shrinks to 0.2% of GDP

CAD which depicts the overall health of a nation’s external economic phase has reported a fall of 0.2% of GDP during Q4 of 2022-2023. The RBI data revealed that CAD shrunk by an additional $1.3 billion largely due to a negative balance of trade falling from $70 billion to $53 billion on account of high exports from the services sector and high remittances obtained. Read more

Sri Lanka have had a lot of restructuring.

Sri Lanka's new domestic debt restructuring

On June 29th, the CBSL arrived at a decision to re-evaluate its internal debt by declaring a 5-day break for promptly readjusting its internal debts. The decision is also meant to appease its foreign creditors as Sri Lanka is seriously considering its responsibilities well. Read more

Government Withdraws Tax Relief for FPIs in Mauritius following Tax Treaty Revision.

A pact validated by India and Mauritius jointly on March 7 called for the end of tax reliefs enjoyed by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) from Mauritius, with the modifications catching the public eye only on April 10. Read more

ICICI and HDFC Securities get QSB Status. Why is it important?

Based on a February 2023 directive brought out by SEBI; the National Stock Exchange in its latest statement (in March) listed 15 stockbrokers for the Qualified Stock Brokers (QSB) status that is reviewed annually. HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities, Kotak Securities, Zerodha Broking Ltd, etc. to name a few. Read more

Repo Rate remains unchanged. What has the RBI kept in sight?

The latest MPC meeting convened on June 8th finally concluded on retaining the repo rates at 6.50%. This provides some respite for EMI payments as it’s expected to be unchanged too. The initial drivers that led to this decision were the CPI rates at tolerant levels of 5.7%, GDP growth boosts by 6.1% and inflation levels will be around 4%. Read more

OPEC is an organisation that is losing its mark in the global ecosystem.

OPEC+ decides on oil cuts. What is the global trend?

The month of June began on a trembling note when the OPEC+ group announced production cuts of their oil stocks to combat the falling demand for oil in a global economy facing recessionary pressures. Since 2022, the production rates were severed by 3.66 million bpd and an extra 1.4 million bpd will be further cut from January 2024. Read more

Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) set to receive protection for their money

The RBI has started considering proposals for ensuring PPI custodians are safeguarded within the ambit of various DICGC policies. PPIs facilitate bill payments, e-tailing, etc. Popular examples include GPay, Paytm, and gift and transaction cards. Read more

RBI’s sale of dollar holdings in 2023 breaks the trend

The cash markets for foreign exchange in 2023 saw an unprecedented event when the RBI decided to sell its stock of dollars after being a buyer since 2020. Earlier sold $213 billion and bought $187.05 billion, creating a net difference of $25.5 billion. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine coupled with the rise in bank rates by the US Federal Reserve, caused irregularities in the rupee trade. Read more

Economic offender code is something new that is coming up to protect financial interests of the investors.

Unique Economic Offender Code & its prospects

With massive financial crimes on the rise, proposals were laid out for devising a new system targeting economic wrongdoers with a ‘specific code’ tied to them. It comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance as it directed the procedure for designing the code in an alphamerical structure. Read more

Mutual funds are now seeing record participation from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Small Cities and their rising share in Mutual Fund Investments

The investment panorama across India is undergoing a widespread shift as we now witness Tier 2 and Tier 3 regions reporting increased participation in Mutual Fund plans. AMFI in its latest data said that the MF industry stands at around Rs 40,000 crores and smaller regions account for 17.44% i.e., Rs 6.9 lakh crores (March 2023) for investors in funds under management. Read more

GST changes in India have literally made a lot of noise in the economy.

India’s GST collections soars, What is the economic outlook?

Based on the latest data released by the Finance Ministry, it showed that the center amassed a massive sum of Rs 1.87 lakh crore from its GST collections from April. An improvement of 11.6% was registered when compared with Rs 1.68 lakh crore received in April 2022. Read more

Dog Day's & the Plight of India's Economic Growth

With rising economic fallouts trapping major world economies, India remained unscathed and continued to stay as a top-growing economy. However, these laurels may not continue further with the onset of torrid summers that act as killjoys. India’s economy depends on over 51% of its population engaged in agrarian and allied activities. Read more

RBI takes the call on ‘penal interest: Why do borrowers feel comforted?

After a deep investigation into the banks’ lending practices, the RBI issued certain directives clearly mentioning that penal charges/interest cannot be used as additional monetary gain measures by imposing amounts atop the fixed interest rates. Taking into account the illegal practices used by banks for charging exorbitant penal rates on loan amount, a new set of rules were brought up. Read more

Silicon Valley Bank is a key bank of US and it crashes badly.

Silicon Valley Bank crashes and will it be a replay of the 2008 Financial Crisis?

Silicon Valley Bank had largely remained a preferred destination with its customer base from top venture capital firms and super-rich tech startups. However, on 10th March, it faced a bank run after a huge fall in the prices of technology stocks and the Federal Reserve’s plans to combat inflation through combative hikes in interest rates. Read more

Credit Suisse is another big bank which collapsed badly.

Why did AT1 bonds gain traction during the Credit Suisse collapse?

The ripple effects from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) breached the contours of the financial world when its impact was seen in the European markets too. Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank saw a 20% drop in its share value, ultimately impacting the European banking index (fall by 6 %) and setting the stage for the next biggest banking collapse. . Read more

IMF bailout finally arrives in Sri Lanka: - How does the way look forward?

Sri Lanka was assured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it had qualified for receiving funds under its Extended Fund Facility program in September 2022, but it took another 6 months for Sri Lanka to avail of this facility after getting assurances from China, India, and Japan with the necessary financial guarantees to regain financial stability. Read more

UPI soon to be operational in Singapore.

The Singapore – India deal of unifying PayNow and UPI

Singapore’s PayNow and India’s UPI were officially linked on February 21st in a
move to make “real-time payment transfer” a reality. Singapore became the first
jurisdiction to offer cross-border Person-to-Person (P2P) payment services. Retail
payments made internationally are typically more expensive and less transparent than
those made domestically. Read more

Debt-Swaps: Can Sustainability Investments avert total Economic Collapses

With $62 billion annually in debt servicing, many developing countries are dealing with
growing debt loads, climate change, and environmental damage. To fulfill their international
and domestic responsibilities, governments would immediately require increasing their
climate and biodiversity conservation investments. Read more

The Supreme Court of India stands firm on its decision to upheld demonetization, which ultimately came in action.

The Supreme Court upholds Demonetization.

What lessons does it teach us?

The morning of January 2nd, 2023 (Monday) began on an unusual note wherein the Supreme Court upheld the government's 2016 note ban on a 4:1 majority. The Court ruled that it was "unimportant" whether the overnight ban's goal was met. Only one judge disagreed, labelling the entire action as "unlawful". Read more...

Green Bonds have become a trend nowadays and people are somehow becoming aware of it.

Green Bonds are launching on Jan 25: What can we infer from them

Green Bonds became a crucial financial tool for addressing the difficulties posed by climate change and its related threats. As stated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), climate change poses hazards to agriculture, food supplies, and communities and economies. To solve these problems, substantial funding is required. Read more