After unseasonal rains, supply disruptions and pandemic-induced woes pushed retail inflation well over the Reserve Bank's comfort zone in 2020, the scenario is likely to stay that way at least in the short term as economic recovery slowly gains foothold. For most part of this year, pricier food items pushed the retail inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), higher in the range of 6.58-7.61 per cent, except for March when the reading was 5.91 per cent. Experts believe retail inflation is likely to average around 6.3 per cent this fiscal and mostly will remain sticky going forward owing to pick-up in demand across sectors.
The message to bankers from Raghuram Rajan was clear.
If true then it would be a major disruption in the industry
Revising up inflation bands for the central bank will hurt the poor, former deputy governor of RBI Viral Acharya said on Wednesday, terming the current 4 per cent midpoint on price-rise as a "reasonable target".
Suggesting steps to boost the Indian economy, the IMF chief further said the government should focus on fiscal consolidation.
Rupee, bonds may see knee-jerk reaction, as Urjit Patel is considered an inflation warrior
High frequency indicators suggest that a growth recovery is underway, but very tentatively and with weak legs, says Saugata Bhattacharya.
For the week, the battered rupee gained 26 paise against the greenback
Given that there are hundreds of players in the shadow banking space, it's hard to make a credible estimate of potential NPAs. That creates more scope for panic, says Devangshu Datta.
An action on the rate front is unlikely to figure in Rajan's plan for the moment.
A 13-member group, headed by RBI Executive Director R Gandhi, has made various recommendations on G-Sec market, retail participation and interest rate derivatives market.
The 30-share Sensex jumped 729 points to end at 28,076 and the 50-share Nifty soared 217 points to end at 8,494.
Budget was a mild disappointment. Yet, the bull run continues.
Private sector lender ICICI Bank has revised its external benchmark lending rate (EBLR) to 8.10 per cent, and state-owned Bank of Baroda has raised the rate to 6.90 per cent with immediate effect after the RBI hiked the key repo rate. Likewise, two other public sector banks -- Bank of India and Central Bank of India -- have also raised the repo linked lending rate. In an out of turn Monetary Committee Meeting (MPC), the Reserve Bank on Wednesday announced to hike the benchmark repo rate -- the short term lending rate it charges to banks -- by 0.40 per cent to 4.40 per cent with immediate effect, aimed at taming the rising inflation caused by the global geopolitical situation.
RBI had received 72 applications for small finance bank licences.
The finance ministry has put out a revised draft in public domain.
Hardening prices of manufactured items during the month may refrain the Reserve Bank of India from cutting rates in its policy review on February 8.
The benchmark BSE Sensex reclaimed the 28,000 mark, spurting by 409 points or 1.4% at 28,114 and Nifty settled above the 8,500 mark at 8,532, gains of 111 points.
Experts have started giving comments on provisions that the govt must make in Budget 2016-17.
Inflation targeting framework is now enshrined as a formal agreement by the government and the RBI; thus, it may seem that we are flogging a dead horse, says Soumya Kanti Ghosh.
The RBI governor most famous oneliners -- 'I am Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do' -- that eventually summed up the year 2015 for the central bank
The idea is to boost household savings and turn more of them into growth capital. If the plan succeeds, sustained eight per cent-plus rates of gross domestic product growth should be within reach in a few years.
The finance ministry on Friday informed a parliamentary committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10.
Industry players said they were indeed seeing a serious fall in capacity usage, though some sectors were seeming to prevent further fall in the overall capacity utilisation.
According to the final recommendations of an expert committee, the weight of primary (unprocessed) food items will go down by 0.5-1.0 percentage points in the new series compared to the current one
TCS, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports and Cipla were the top gainers on BSE Sensex while Coal India, GAIL, Dr Reddy's and Infosys lost the most on the index.
The lack of an informal communication channel is what should bother the government and the RBI, if they want to eliminate the undesirable outcomes of the current tension between the two, says A K Bhattacharya.
A smartly executed reform-recap will be the best booster for the economy, says Ajay Chhibber.
Jaitley also hinted that these very economic realities could decide whether the government sticks to a fiscal consolidation roadmap or not.
'We have promised to ensure reduced tax rates.'
If banks cannot charge interest from borrowers during the moratorium, who will bear that cost? Should the depositors subsidise the borrowers by foregoing interest on deposits? In that case, we will turn banking on its head! notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The change from wholesale to retail inflation as an anchor means that the weightage of diesel in inflation has decreased
Raghuram Rajan said the head of the central bank should have a fixed tenure of more than three years as the current term was too short.
'Common sense says if one can afford, servicing the loans during this period is a better bet than postponing it by three months,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
FPIs, which are holding large exposures in Indian debt, could also be expected to book some capital gains as yields slide down
There were more than three losers against every gainer on BSE
'If the government spends Rs 10 lakh crore this year then you would be looking at a GDP growth of minus 5 per cent.' 'If you do not do this, you will be looking at GDP growth between minus nine and minus 10 per cent.'
Banks want lower provisioning burden on recast debt, interest on cash reserve ratio deposits.
The rupee rose by 4 paise at 66.88 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday.
A rate cut will bring positive sentiment around the Budget.
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