The Reserve Bank of India is expected to keep policy unchanged this week as it looks to control inflation.
Gita Gopinath, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, says the monetary policy in India is not transparent and it would be nice to know very clearly from the central bank what steps it has to control inflation and what impact the rate hikes had on controlling inflation.
Faced with the challenging task of balancing growth and inflation, the Reserve Bank of India will take measures in its quarterly review later this month to perk up the economy and to control inflation, which rose to 0.83 per cent for the third week of September.
The economic survey for 2020-21 has suggested revision in the weightage of food items to gauge the true picture of inflation in the country, and said new sources of price data also need to be incorporated in the wake of increasing retail e-commerce transactions. As per the survey, the current spike in consumer price-based retail inflation of food prices is mainly a supply-side phenomenon. The survey noted that the weights of all items in retail inflation are based on the NSO household consumption expenditure survey of 2011-12, adding the weight of food items in the index might have significantly decreased over the decade since then.
Bajaj hit out at banks for not passing the entire benefits to consumers.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said India will be benefitted economically by having peace with his country as it will enable New Delhi to directly access the resource-rich Central Asia region through Pakistani territory.
Rediff.com takes its readers through the various moods of Raghuram Rajan.
'Even if there is a third wave or a fourth wave, it is hard to see the economy will suffer like that (during the first wave).'
The broader NSE Nifty too slipped by 9.50 points, or 0.09 per cent, to end at 10,118.25
President Pranab Mukherjee addressed the Joint Session of both Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget session.
However, he maintains, that even global factors too are responsible.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Monday said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has failed on all fronts and was not doing anything to help the common person."There is hardly any area left in which this government at the Centre has not failed," Singh said during a press conference.
The finance ministry will have to rely on the weapons in its arsenal, since monetary policy is not providing the support.
The central bank is struggling to do so, after unleashing a panicky expansionary policy after the Lehman crisis.
Ignoring the rate cut demand of India Inc, RBI in its first quarter monetary policy review kept the short-term lending (repo) rate, at which banks borrow from RBI, unchanged at 8 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India hiked key interest rates by 0.25 per cent each in the last two reviews to tame inflation.
Inflation as measured by the Wholesale Price Index stood at 6.87 per cent in July, down from 7.25 per cent in June. It is still much above RBI's comfort level of 5-6 per cent.
The Reserve Bank on Monday hinted at lowering interest rates saying that focus of monetary policy needs to be shifted to arrest declining growth while keeping inflation under control.
We bring you a collection of some of the best quotes in the last 24 hours.
Sources said much has been done to ease the tax burden of the middle classes in the last five years, and that such a measure affects only a limited segment of people when the focus should be to put money in rural areas. Archis Mohan reports.
Attributing the slowdown to the Reserve Bank's tight monetary policy and global problems, the government on Tuesday informed Parliament that economic growth in 2011-12 will moderate to 7.5 per cent, from 8.5 per cent in the previous fiscal.
Addressing shareholders of group firm Tata Motors in the Annual Report for 2010-11, Tata said: "Inflation is indeed a lurking enemy of healthy growth and needs to be controlled."
Those who have been following developments in the past few years know that Wal-Mart alone must have spent millions of dollars in India for lobbying with our government to open up retail sector for FDI.
In an exclusive column to Rediff.com, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat explains what is wrong with the Union Budget 2011-12 that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented in Parliament on Monday.
Under attack for inability to control surging food prices, especially onions, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has written a letter to state chief ministers asking them to crack down on hoarders to ensure increase in supply of essential items.
The new government will face four big challenges -- subdued growth, the fiscal and current account deficits and sticky inflation, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said.
If he expects the states to take steps for controlling inflation, he should also respect the country's federal structure and not assume a veto power at the GST Council.
As inflation surged to double digits, the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should rein in spiralling prices of essential commodities and talk less of achieving high GDP growth.
'Long-term retail investors should not worry about these sharp dips and jumps if they have chosen their stocks wisely.' 'Short-term volatility is a given and a rise and fall of two-three per cent should not worry them.'
In order to contain Current Account Deficit and arrest value of declining rupee, the RBI last month had raised the cost of borrowing for banks and reduced availability of funds to curb speculation in the forex market.
Housing loan, car loans, personal loans and education loan will get costlier in the months to come.
Property consultants also feel that the hike in policy rates would not have any significant impact on the housing sector, which has witnessed a revival in demand for the last one year.
Food inflation has jumped to 17.47 per cent for the week ended November 21 from 15.58 per cent in the previous week.
Given the relevance of bank deposits for Indian savers, whether the regulator would permit linking savings interest rate to a repo-like structure needs to be seen, as a move of this nature could increase volatility in savings also.
As many as 72 per cent of Indians are satisfied with the performance of Narendra Modi government and 55 per cent feel that the Bharatiya Janata Party regime has been successful in controlling inflation, according to an opinion poll conducted by Hindi news channel News Nation.
"Government is not helpless and has means to ensure prices are brought down. More measures -- both administrative and fiscal -- are in the offing to control inflation," Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar told reporters in New Delhi. Iron ore, steel and cement would continue to remain under the government scanner, he said. A series of calibrated measures would ensure that inflation is brought down by at least one percentage point in the next two months, he added.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been consistent in warning the party against high prices and has asked government leaders to act fast. She has been assured the inflation rate will come down to single digits from the current 12.14 per cent around November-December. Party sources say the recent blasts in Delhi will be one reason the elections may be called only in February.
The ongoing financial sector crisis in the United States and its repercussions on developed markets worldwide will result in lower capital inflows into emerging markets like India, economists and government officials said on Thursday.
Gokarn was the first Indian central banker who regularised warnings to the government, through the monetary policy statement, on the need to reduce fiscal deficit.
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