Fitch Ratings has cut India's economic growth forecast to 8.7 per cent for the current fiscal but raised GDP growth projection for FY23 to 10 per cent, saying the second COVID-19 wave delayed rather than derail the economic recovery. In its APAC Sovereign Credit Overview, Fitch Ratings said India's 'BBB-/Negative' sovereign rating "balances a still-strong medium-term growth outlook and external resilience from solid foreign- reserve buffers, against high public debt, a weak financial sector and some lagging structural factors". The 'Negative' outlook, it said, reflects uncertainty over the debt trajectory following the sharp deterioration in India's public finances due to the pandemic shock.
Moody's rates a total of 15 public sector and private sector banks, which together accounted for about 66 per cent of the banking system's estimated total assets on March 2012.
Bajaj Finance was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, soaring over 8 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, PowerGrid, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and L&T. On the other hand, Maruti, ITC, NTPC and Nestle India were among the laggards.
Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said India's economy will witness a decline in the current fiscal, but the drop will be limited if there is an economic recovery in the October-March period.
The revision will do little to help the Congress party-led ruling alliance, which faces an uphill battle in elections due by May amid allegations of economic mismanagement, corruption scams and high inflation.
And, Shaheen Afridi won the T20I bowling award for his annihilation of India in the 10-wicket win for Pakistan at the T20 World Cup.
'The slide in growth has arisen primarily because we have an NBFC crisis on top of a banking crisis,' points out T T Ram Mohan.
'While most companies were bullish before the second wave of double-digit sales growth in FY22, that may not be the case now.'
The government plan to sell stakes in state-owned enterprises would help it address many of India's existing economic concerns and alleviate the current "fiscal stress", according to Moody's.
While the collapse of a large financial intermediary can wreak havoc on the system because of the interconnectivity, a large business conglomerate too can play spoilsport if the banks have too much exposure to the entity, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In December 2019, the India arm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu surprised many with its ultra-competitive bid to become the transaction advisor for the country's largest strategic divestment in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The multinational major quoted just Rs 1; the second-highest bidder, SBI Caps, reportedly quoted Rs 15-17 crore. For Deloitte, the motivation was to bag a prestigious deal adding a national energy company to its portfolio. No doubt, it expected BPCL to go to a marquee buyer in quick time.
'I've been here before, whether with the South African or IPL teams, so I'm excited. A new role for me, a coaching role which I'm really excited about. It's a whole new role looking at the players, which is fantastic. I'm looking forward to hitting the ground running.'
Fitch had last upgraded India's sovereign rating from BB+ to BBB- with a stable outlook on August 1, 2006.
Rediff.com's Harish Kotian checks out how much India's cricket coaches -- from John Wright to Ravi Shastri -- have been paid.
Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on Saturday, the fourth increase in five days as oil firms passed on to consumers the spike in cost of raw material. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 98.61 per litre as against Rs 97.81 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.07 per litre to Rs 89.87, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. All the four increases since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22, have been of 80 paise a litre.
What makes Wonder Women brilliant is the breeziness of the events and issues it tackles without delving on it too much or surrendering to it completely, observes Divya Nair. Wonder Women Review
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut India's growth forecast to 10 per cent for the current fiscal, from 12.8 per cent estimated earlier, due to slowing recovery post second wave of COVID-19, and said rapid vaccination could support a sustainable revival in business and consumer confidence. In a report, the global rating agency said the challenges for banking sector posed by the coronavirus pandemic have increased due to a virulent second wave in the first quarter of the financial year ending March 2022 (FY22). "Fitch Ratings revised down India's real GDP for FY22 by 280bp to 10 per cent, underlining our belief that renewed restrictions have slowed recovery efforts and left banks with a moderately worse outlook for business and revenue generation in FY22," it said. Fitch believes that rapid vaccination could support a sustainable revival in business and consumer confidence; however, without it, economic recovery would remain vulnerable to further waves and lockdowns.
Manish Pandey blasted a quickfire 76-ball 77 before Mitchell Swepson returned with a four-wicket haul to dismiss India 'A' for 230 in their first innings against Australia 'A' in the opening match of the unofficial four-day Test Series in Brisbane, on Thursday.
All the banks mentioned here have balance sheet size greater than Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion).
Moody's upgrade should start a long-overdue correction. Credibility of the big credit rating agencies is under threat.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday raised the personal income tax rebate limit, doled out sops on small savings and announced one of the biggest hikes in capital spending in the past decade as she did a tight rope walk in the Budget between staying fiscally prudent and meeting public expectations in the year before general elections.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Thursday discounted the 'junk' grading of the rupee by rating agencies like Moody's and S&P, saying it was based on a few 'weak' parameters rather than the overall macro-economic picture.\n\n\n\n
Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) member Sourav Ganguly on Saturday said that the interview to select the new India coach will be held on July 10 in Mumbai.
Ruling out any change in India's sovereign rating due to a political standoff over the Indo-US nuclear deal, credit rating agency Moody's on Wednesday said the crisis was not serious enough to dent the country's economic policy framework.
The budget has strong growth impulses and response of the economy is positive.
The Indian economy has been plagued by several crises in the last few months. Yet, the nature of India's national conversation of late has been such that it does not adequately capture their complexity and potential for harm to the economy.
Like in Brazil, India's government has only limited opportunities to provide some fiscal stimulus to offset a possible slowdown in capital flows, Moody's said.
Fitch Ratings director Thomas Rookmaaker said India's debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to rise to 76 per cent from 70 per cent currently due to wider fiscal deficit and low economic growth.
Petrol price on Monday was hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, taking the total increase in rates in the last one week to Rs 4-4.10 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.41 per litre as against Rs 99.11 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 90.42 per litre to Rs 90.77, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
Andrew Symonds, who was 46 and was a member of Australia's World Cup-winning teams in 2003 and 2007, died in a car accident in Queensland.
India and China are seeing economic slowdown while growth momentum is losing steam in most of the developed world, says Paris-based think tank OECD.
S&P warned about spending on subsidies and heavy government debt.
India has pitched for a sovereign credit rating upgrade with Fitch Ratings, after announcing its budget last month.
Fitch Ratings on Monday cautioned that the Indian government has little fiscal headroom at its disposal to respond to possible shocks to growth given the country's lowest investment grade credit rating with a negative outlook. "India's public debt/GDP ratio, at about 87 per cent in FY21, is well above the median of around 60% for 'BBB' rated sovereigns. "We revised the Outlook on India's rating to Negative, from Stable, in June 2020, partly owing to our assumptions about the impact of the pandemic on public finance metrics. "The government has little fiscal headroom at its current rating level to respond to possible shocks to growth," it said in a report.
S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday lowered India's economic growth forecast to 5.2 per cent for 2020, saying the global economy is entering a recession amid the coronavirus pandemic. The agency had earlier projected a growth rate of 5.7 per cent during the 2020 calendar.
The retrenchments at the company promoted by Mumbai BJP chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha come at a time when the economic growth has dipped to a six-year low of 5 per cent, which has led many to fear if the spectre of job losses across sectors awaits next.
Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 55 paise, taking the total increase in rates since resumption of daily price revision less than a week back to Rs 3.70-3.75 per litre. Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 99.11 per litre as against Rs 98.61 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 89.87 per litre to Rs 90.42, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
The rating agency said that the 'Baa3' sovereign rating is supported by credit strengths which include a large, diverse economy, strong gross domestic product growth as well as savings, and investment rates.
Fitch Ratings said with GDP growth of 6.5% and WPI-based inflation of 8.8%, India may have entered into a stagflation period in 2011-12.
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