IMF has predicted a slowdown of world economic growth and approves of Fed Reserve's move of cutting its interest rate.
The Reserve Bank may go for a final 25 basis points increase in the current rate hike cycle next week and a reduction would come in only by the end of third quarter of FY24, economists at Axis Bank said on Wednesday. As per media reports, RBI officials met economists on Tuesday, and the latter have suggested the central bank to go for a 25 basis points hike in key rates. Since May 2022, the RBI has hiked rates by 250 basis points, hurting borrowers and some are already concerned about loan tenors extending beyond their working lives as a result of the hikes.
Slowing economic activities in China would result in excess capacities that could hit the overall demand-supply balance.
The country's largest commercial bank's SME advances grew nearly 23 per cent to Rs 119,676 crore last financial year.
Since their highs in September, chemical stocks have underperformed the benchmarks and broader indices over the past month with larger players witnessing a 9-22 per cent fall during this period. Expectations of weak September quarter results amid high inventory, demand woes and weak realisations have led to the underperformance.
Slowdown in the global economy and bearish market conditions are impacting inflow of funds from foreign institutional investors even as the current account deficit during the first quarter of 2008-09 soared to $10.7 billion, says a report by the Reserve Bank of India.
The global outsourcing market seems to be going through a sluggish phase, showing signs of slowdown, as number of deals signed during the July-September quarter this year dropped to 472 from 503 deals in Q3 2010.
From the Sensex pack, NTPC, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Titan, Power Grid and State Bank of India were the major gainers. ITC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and JSW Steel were among the laggards.
The US slowdown coupled with rupee appreciation, talent crunch and rising salaries, and the 2010 sunset clause on tax holiday for IT firms, is putting knowledge process outsourcing firms in a bind.
The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in August that involved private equity (PE) funds was the lowest in nearly three years. There were 26 such deals last month, according to data from tracker Refinitiv (part of London Stock Exchange Group). The last time monthly deal numbers were so low in recent times was January 2021 when Covid cases were picking up during the second wave of the pandemic.
It's a blessing in disguise, of sorts. Indian companies, which had to face a huge attrition problem over the last few years, can finally breathe easy. HR analysts said the economic slowdown is expected to reduce the attrition rates across industries, at least for the next two quarters.
Money is the new God and spending it is the closest that one gets to nirvana. These five malls together accommodate close to 1,800 showrooms and smaller kiosks that sell almost everything a consumer could want. The number of visitors at Select City Walk averages around 2,000 on weekdays, going up to 6,000 on weekends.
An improvement in political relations, anchored in a restoration of peace and tranquillity at the border, could open up opportunities for expanded economic and commercial relations between them, suggests former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.
If the Budget makes no big announcements on new schemes, projects, or tax giveaways, the government would face a major political dilemma as it may have to reluctantly consider shunning the practice of unveiling pre-election sops to woo voters, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Infosys has a long way to go as far as IT business is concerned, said Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Corporate earnings got a big boost from the fall in commodity and energy prices in July-September 2023 (Q2FY24) despite a slowdown in revenue growth during the quarter. The combined net profits of 3,123 firms that have declared their results so far were up 38 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 3.07 trillion in Q2FY24, up from Rs 2.24 trillion a year ago. Earnings were, however, down 3.5 per cent on a sequential basis from Rs 3.18 trillion in April-June (Q1) FY24.
The new Samvat 2080 is viewed as a year of hope for industrial and precious metals. A key reason is the expectation of US interest rates peaking, followed by a reduction in the coming months. Regarding crude oil, its trajectory depends more on how the situation unfolds in West Asia.
Domestic pharmaceutical market registered a value growth of 14.4 per cent in January and 9.9 per cent in the 12 months ended January 2009. The yearly turnover was Rs 34,487.17 crore. The growth of the domestic drug sector, which was just 6.8 per cent in November 2008, improved to 13.2 per cent in December and to 14.4 per cent this January.
Crude oil is not the only commodity seeing a price correction on fears of an economic slowdown. The same sentiment is driving prices of a range of important industrial metals like copper, zinc, aluminum and the precious metal gold. As a result, prices are now below what they were three months ago.
India on Wednesday asked its South Asian neighbours to increase intra-regional trade as a cushion against slowdown in exports to the US and European markets.
Like other food and grocery chains, Birla Retail is aggressively pushing its private labels and large packs to woo customers. Besides offering value, private labels push retailers' margins.
"The outlook for exports in 2008-09 may not be as bright as in the past few years with lower projections in world GDP and world imports and exchange rate developments," according to the pre-Budget Economic Survey tabled in Parliament.
Indebted developers are cutting staff as they slow work on existing projects and postpone new ones until they clear a backlog of 700,000 unsold homes
The hope that the ongoing 13th round of negotiations towards an India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) could conclude with a deal for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to sign off in time for the India versus England World Cup cricket clash in Lucknow on October 29 seem to be fading, according to a UK media report on Wednesday. The Financial Times quoted officials briefed on the negotiations to say that a lack of movement towards opening up of the Indian market to British professional services in the field of law and accountancy is among the factors for the slowdown. So much so that cricket fan Sunak's proposed return visit to India after an inaugural visit as UK Prime Minister to New Delhi for the G20 Summit last month is looking "very, very unlikely to happen".
NITI Aayog has not said what the reasons were for having achieved or not having achieved what was sought to be achieved, or what lessons can be learned for the future, points out Aakar Patel.
Indian exports, which was hit by global slowdown last year, are likely to remain sluggish during 2013 as well due to challenging economic conditions in western economies, though policymakers have drawn a strategy to diversify exports.
While edging up China's gross domestic product growth projection for both 2010 and 2011, the report said that growth in domestic demand would remain strong although exports could suffer from a predicted global economic slowdown next year.
'To sustain our growth trajectory, we must continue to explore and capitalise on growth opportunities.'
Apprehending a slowdown in the growth of the economy due to the hardening of interest rates, the appreciating rupee and falling tariffs, the government has decided to set up a group to discuss the impact of these changes.
India can become a $6.7 trillion economy by 2031, from $3.4 trillion currently, if the country clocks an average growth of 6.7 per cent for 7 years, an S&P Global report said on Thursday. India had clocked a 7.2 per cent GDP growth in 2022-23 fiscal. But a global slowdown and lagged effect of a policy rate hike by RBI could slow down growth to 6 per cent in the current fiscal, S&P Global said in a report titled 'Look Forward: India's Money'.
While China continues to be the largest engine for growth in Asia, other parts of the region were also seeing significant increases in demand for travel with a fast-expanding middle class providing a 'brighter outlook' for Asian carriers, the latest study by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines has said.
The two-wheeler segment is, however, still far from its H1FY19 peak of 9.7 million units
Moreover, automobile and consumer durables players are slashing their ad expenditure by over 65 per cent this Diwali.
The headline for corporate profit growth has been very encouraging in the July-September quarter (Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), with the combined net profit of listed companies up by 38 per cent year-on-year. However, the earnings distribution has been very lopsided, with most of the growth coming from public-sector oil-marketing companies (OMCs), banks, non-bank lenders, automobile (auto) companies, and cement producers. By comparison, companies from information technology services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and consumer durables were disappointed, experiencing a sharp slowdown in net sales growth and a relatively muted increase in reported net profit.
Corporate indebtedness is now twice what it was before the global financial crisis; banks' bad loans ratio is 3.5 times higher.
Growth has slowed in some of the large emerging economies, its interim economic assessment report added. "One factor has been a rise in global bond yields -- triggered in part by an expected scaling back of the US Federal Reserve's quantitative easing -- which has fuelled market instability and capital outflows in a number of major emerging economies, such as India and Indonesia.
The rising spends on credit cards, increase in sale of third-party products and surge in consumer loan demand have allowed banks to limit the impact of slowdown in corporate fee income.
While Emami is still struggling to push growth, given weak rural demand, the sale of the group's stake in AMRI Hospitals should ease investor concerns about stake pledges by promoters. It has also carried a series of stake acquisitions which should enable the expansion of its brand portfolio. The Q2 results are likely to see flat volumes and low revenue growth alongside some gross margin expansion.