Hong Kong is the world's freest economy according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2015.
The Bank of Japan's action has nullified the effects of the end of the US' quantitative easing programme but the dependence of foreign institutional investors remains a concern
Despite no change in interest rates, India's largest lender, State Bank of India, last week became among the latest to lower deposit rates, often a precursor to lower lending rates, something some banks have already done for certain consumer loans.
The outlook is improving and that mostly reflects the fact that the new government has pledged to prioritise economic reforms.
With a rise of around 30 per cent in the benchmark index S&P BSE Sensex, 2014 has been the best year for Indian equity markets since 2009, when the benchmark index surged 81 per cent.
It is surprising that central bankers around the world have cautioned the US Federal Reserve against raising rates.
Attributing price rise to global factors and higher Minimum Support Price (MSP), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the government has tried to protect the interest of poor people by maintaining supply through the PDS system.
If the Modi government is going to set new benchmarks of performance, don't expect the majority of his dozen-odd ministers-who-matter with economic portfolios to be making the difference, says T N Ninan.
The global rating agency expects the economy to pick up in the next two financial years.
'This is a good time to restructure your portfolio because the sectors and stocks that performed in the last bull market may not perform as much now.'
Over the next three - six months, UBS believes earnings will be the main driver for EM equities outperformance.
The disruptions caused by COVID-19 have more severely impacted small and mid-sized corporates, including NBFCs and MFIs, in terms of access to liquidity.
'Probability has increased for India to have improved fundamentals'.
Businesses are still taking time to adjust in the new tax regime, which would weigh on growth rates for the financial year closing today.
The National Democratic Alliance won 64 seats.
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Indian companies are keenly waiting for reforms on rules related to land acquisition, labour, coal and power sector, and foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
'Investors hate uncertainty and the demonetisation move certainly creates that.'
India's economy is estimated to contract by 9.6 per cent in the fiscal year 2020-21, reflecting a sharp drop in household spending and private investment, and the growth is expected to recover to 5.4 per cent in 2021, the World Bank said on Tuesday. In its Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank said that the informal sector, which accounts for four-fifths of employment, has been subject to severe income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Money that came into mutual funds near the previous peaks -- the second half of 2017 and 2018 -- has in most cases experienced unflattering returns.' 'A large proportion of redemptions could be such inflows exiting when the market recovered sharply from July 2020 onwards.'
This Budget plans for an increase to 10.3% of GDP from 9.9%.
The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF management and consideration by its executive board, which is expected in early April.
The RBI must cut rates to spur growth, say experts.
Stellar rally in ITC shares along with strength in the Asian equities capped the downside.
China's economy, which suffered 6.8 per cent slump in the first quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic -- the worst in 44 years -- bounced back posting 4.9 per cent growth between July and September buoyed by the government's sweeping efforts to stimulate demand and consumption.
Unwinding of long dollar positions ahead of the US job data backed the rupee sentiment
Watchdogs of the economy have not been barking and it is high time we noticed it, says Shreekant Sambrani.
A series of modest support measures from the government over the year helped stave off worries of a more dramatic slowdown
'India's biggest loss is that we will not have anyone as principled and as courageous as Rajan.'
If Mr Modi and his team expect to win the 2019 elections, groundwork for improved performance in their second term should be done now.
Group still far from coordinating monetary/forex policy
One incident should not be used to generalise the health of all cooperative banks, says RBI governor Shaktikanta Das.
India's central bank kept its key repo lending rate unchanged at 6.75 percent on Tuesday.
'The Budget that Mr Jaitley will present on February 29 will be crucial.'
While the Reserve Bank and the Economic Survey of the finance ministry have projected India to grow at 6.9 per cent and 6.5 per cent in current fiscal, the International Monetary Fund estimates it to be 6.6 per cent.
The BJP still does not have a majority in Upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, and this will pose hurdles to the party's legislative reform agenda
Industry chamber Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the Reserve Bank of India should intervene and cut interest rates.
In the new decade, the scene will change because the banks till recently had been challenged by the fintechs, but the techfins have now entered the arena, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Record liquidity infusion by the central bank in the banking system during the financial year 2020-21 amid sluggish economic activity resulted in banks investing more in safe government papers than in extending loans, data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed. This trend has not been seen in nearly two decades, barring 2016 - the year of demonetisation.
Observing that India's worsening COVID-19 situation and the strict measures to contain it have hit the economy hard, the rating agency said productive capacity has been severely disrupted since the start of the pandemic.
With this subdued forecast, India is likely to record its worst growth performance since the 1991 liberalisation. However, it is among the only two major economies, which will register a positive growth rate in 2020. The other being China, for which the IMF has projected a growth rate of 1.2 per cent.
