The silver lining for India's presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
It would be a difficult task for the Indian economy to reach the $5-trillion mark a year before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projection of 2026-27. Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the government is taking steps to make the country a $5-trillion economy at a date earlier than the IMF's projection. In that context, it would not be difficult to meet the projection in the third quarter of FY27.
Gold reserves were down by $580 million in the reporting week to $37.440 billion.
A high-tech Chinese research ship docked at the strategically important Hambantota port departed from Sri Lankan waters on Monday after a controversial six-day visit.
'A stable and strong Pakistan with an anti-India mindset and hatred is not good for us.'
Ahead of the Union Budget for 2023-24, Budget makers have welcomed the global consensus view that India will remain one of the bright spots in calendar year 2023. But there is some alarm over the grim global situation and how that might impact the Centre's projections and assessments for next financial year. The big global headwinds include a deep and sustained recession in the West, including India's biggest trading partners in North America and Europe, continuing volatility in commodity markets, and renewed Covid-19 fears, as lifting of strict curbs by China could potentially lead to a massive spread again.
Gold reserves rose by $320 million to $31 billion.
International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Gita Gopinath tells Indivjal Dhasmana high-frequency indicators for the third quarter of 2021 indicate momentum in economic recovery in India.
Indian policymakers are almost alone, alongside the United States, in seeking a hard and multi-sectoral global decoupling from China in the expectation that it will boost their economies, observes Mihir S Sharma.
The anti-government protests near the presidential secretariat in Colombo resumed on Sunday after the authorities lifted the nation-wide curfew to celebrate the Vesak -- what we call Buddha Purnima in India -- festival.
The country's foreign exchange reserves surged by $5.271 billion to touch a record high of $598.165 billion in the week ended May 28, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week ended May 21, 2021, the reserves had increased by $2.865 billion to $592.894 billion. While announcing the second bi-monthly monetary policy review earlier on Friday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the country's forex reserves may have crossed $600 billion currently.
The IMF chief described the incident of rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in India as "revolting.
'We should look at is full year's growth rather than quarter numbers.'
Gold reserves were down by $1.441 billion in the reporting week to $35.999 billion.
Dr Mohan will be representing India along with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka on the 24-member Executive Board of the IMF.
The poll found that among those who voted for the Conservatives at the last election, 62 per cent said that party members had made the wrong choice when the race was shortlisted between Truss and Sunak.
"Antonio Borges, director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department, has notified IMF managing director Christine Lagarde of his intention to leave the Fund for personal reasons," the IMF said in a statement on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday met IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva and discussed a range of issues, including impact of geopolitical situation on global growth.
The Centre's capital expenditure (capex) outlay for the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of 2022-23 (FY23) could be close to Rs 1.5 trillion, Business Standard has learnt. As a percentage of full-year capex Budget Estimates (BE) of Rs 7.5 trillion, this could be at similar levels to the trends in the past few fiscal years. It is in the July-September quarter (Q2) of FY23 that capex is expected to pick up, when a bulk of the long-term capex loans to states are expected to be expended.
Gold reserves were down by $331 million to $37.264 billion.
Pakistan's current account deficit (CAD) increased to a 4-year high of $17.4 billion in the fiscal year of 2021-22, indicating more troubles for the ailing economy of the cash-strapped country. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday reported that the country recorded a CAD of $17.406 billion in FY22 compared to a gap of just $2.82 billion in FY21. According to Dawn newspaper, the massive CAD speaks a lot about the severe problem of the balance of payments.
Only 68 MPs voted in favour of the motion, it said, giving the 72-year-old President a comfortable victory.
The country's foreign exchange reserves swelled by USD 3.005 billion to a lifetime high of USD 490.044 billion in the week ending May 22, mainly on account of a rise in foreign currency assets, RBI data showed on Friday. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by USD 1.726 billion to USD 487.04 billion.
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International Monetary Fund's former boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Monday pleaded not guilty in a brief court appearance to charges that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid here last month.
IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that many Asian economies are already unwinding stimulus measures.
Even as the bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries remains hostile, there is growing coordination between India and Pakistan on one multilateral forum - the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both countries have made two joint submissions at the WTO as co-sponsors in the past two months. In June, Pakistan joined India, Cuba, and 44 African countries, seeking sufficient flexibility in intellectual property rights for developing countries to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
India's inflation trajectory in the coming months will be influenced more by the geo-political situation due to the war in Europe and its impact on supply chains and commodity prices. However, the country is better placed than most to "weather the storm" and achieve growth of close to 8 per cent in the current fiscal year, the finance ministry said in its latest monthly economic report on Thursday. "Through the channel of imports, elevated global crude and edible oil prices now have a significant impact on India's inflation outlook. "Government measures to keep the prices of these commodities in check, along with the recent hike in policy rates by the RBI, are expected to temper inflationary pressures in the economy," the monthly economic report for April, drafted by the finance ministry's economic division, said.
International Monetary Fund has completed the sale of 403.3 tonnes of gold, as part of its two-year efforts to bolster the lender's finances that also saw India's central bank purchasing 200 tonnes of the precious metal last year.
Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port authorities said the high-tech Chinese research vessel that was to dock there on Thursday won't reach the port as scheduled, according to a media report, days after India expressed security concerns over its presence in the island nation.
Foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, fell by $490 million to $441.458 billion in the reporting week.
The International Monetary Fund has added island nation Tuvalu located in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia as its 187th member.
Gold reserves were up by $712 million to $34.729 billion.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving Sri Lanka 'a breath of life' by providing timely economic assistance to his country as it faced the worst economic crisis in decades.
The levy, the IMF said, should raise an equivalent of at least two per cent of a country's economic output -- about $300 billion in the US -- and set it aside to underwrite the cost of seeing banks through bankruptcy.
As IMF meets to give Pakistan another loan, the country's economy remains in deep trouble.
The World Bank has announced that it will stop all its programmes in Russia and Belarus with "immediate effect" in response to Moscow's military operations in Ukraine and "hostilities" against the people of the war-torn country. On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities. The decision comes as a large number of countries, organisations and businesses are severing ties and have imposed sanctions on Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine, and with Belarus for its support and cooperation with Moscow.
The government should not go in for an 'aggressive fiscal consolidation' in the upcoming Budget as global risks have not abated, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Wednesday. Goyal further said subsidies are expected to come down as food and energy inflation moderates. WPI inflation in food articles in November was 1.07 per cent against 8.33 per cent in the previous month.
Eyewitnesses said that a section of the protesters had remained for the all-night vigil.
'Nobody wants him to gain power.' 'But saying that all these players together conspired against Imran Khan and had him arrested would be in the realm of conjecture but possibilities cannot be ruled out.'
