Retail inflation slipped to a multi-year low of 0.25 per cent in October, driven by the impact of the GST rate cut and subdued prices of vegetables and fruits, government data showed on Wednesday.
There has been a dramatic decline in oil prices from the high of $147 a barrel in July, to less than a third of that today. However, it is too early to say if this is a fundamental change in the direction of oil prices, resulting from the announced cuts in production by the oil-exporting countries, or a blip in a falling market. The government seems to be assuming (or hoping that it is) the latter and is rushing ahead with its price cut plan.
The government should start with two assumptions: first, that oil prices are fundamentally unstable and susceptible to wide fluctuations, and second, that raising the prices of petroleum products is politically difficult.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a 9.6 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit for the September quarter, driven by strong performance in its consumer-facing retail and telecom businesses and a recovery in its core oil-to-chemicals segment.
With an eye on the adverse fallout of rising oil prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said the government's subsidy bill for petroleum products and fertilisers might cross the projections for 2011-12 and put fiscal consolidation plans under strain.
'America is adopting the typical 'my way or the highway'/'Either you are with us or against us' stance.' 'This is a policy India is not going to accept.'
When oil prices are very high, cutting down the subsidy results in sharp increase in oil prices.
Economic boom in countries like India and China and unrest in other parts of the globe are some of the important factors.
According to a RBS report, 'the impact on India's current account deficit should be significant, cumulatively amounting to 1.9 per cent of GDP' provided for the full year FY14 prices for both oil and gold remain at current levels and aggregate volume gold demand remains stable.
As far as US growth is concerned, he says that the first half of next year is expected to be better than the second half of this year.\n\n
The revised projection comes after a 17% rise in the April-June.
Bangkok is a fast, 24-hour megapolis, full of joie de vivre and buoyance that you will be instantly smitten, like I was.
India's brittle energy security is inextricably linked to two opposing paradigms - fossil fuels, and the transition to green energy. The first powers the present; the second paves the way for Viksit Bharat in 2047.
The government is likely to give a subsidy of Rs 30,000-35,000 crore to state-run oil companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) - to compensate for losses incurred from selling LPG at below cost over the past 15 months, according to a senior official.
India's annual oil import bill could rise by $9-11 billion if the country is compelled to move away from Russian crude in response to US threats of additional tariffs or penalties on Indian exports, analysts said. India, the world's third-largest oil consumer and importer, has reaped significant benefits by swiftly substituting market-priced oil with discounted Russian crude following Western sanctions on Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The rupee plunged 38 paise to close at an all-time low of 90.32 against the US dollar on Thursday amid uncertainty over the India-US trade deal. Forex traders said the rupee is expected to trade with a negative bias as the delay in the trade deal between India and the US may continue to dent investor confidence.
Equity market investors would track global trends, foreign fund movement and quarterly earnings in a holiday-shortened week ahead, analysts said. Stock exchanges BSE and NSE will conduct a special Muhurat trading session on Tuesday, October 21.
India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record $41.68 billion in October, as gold imports trebled and outbound shipments registered their sharpest contraction in 14 months, according to data released by the commerce department.
A US official has stated that India's continued purchase of Russian oil is a point of contention in the relationship between the two countries, as it helps fund Russia's war efforts in Ukraine.
The threat of war in Iraq and fear of terrorism in the United States and Britain pushed oil prices to near two-year highs on Thursday, drove investors into the safety of bonds but battered stocks and the dollar.
Expressing concern over the impact of rising crude oil prices on Indian economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said it can have adverse consequences for the economy. "We cannot allow the subsidy bill to rise any further," Singh said and appealed to all the political parties to adopt a wider consensus on the pricing issue.
India's purchase of Russian oil has risen to 2 million barrels per day in August, as refiners continue to prioritise economic considerations in their sourcing decisions. As much as 38 per cent out of an estimated 5.2 million barrels per day of crude oil imported in the first half of August came from Russia, according to global real-time data and analytics provider Kpler.
Financials were the top losers while oil shares also declined amid weak crude oil prices.
Oil prices fell from their two-year highs on Tuesday, as pressure mounted against an immediate attack on Iraq, lessening fears of a possible disruption of oil supplies from the world's eighth-largest exporter.
One of the reasons is that the retail prices are not bench-marked to crude but their respective international benchmark prices.
US President George W Bush said that oil prices are rising as the economies of India and China are also growing.
The country's fiscal deficit, as a percentage of GDP, would be wiped out if the crude oil price, as measured with the Indian basket, touch $80 per barrel.
Amidst soaring oil prices posing a threat to the world economy, the United States has said there is "no magic wand" to solve the problem overnight.
Replying to questions on losses to Air India, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said the rally in international crude oil prices that touched $147 a barrel in July 2008, hit Indian carriers by Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in jet fuel bill. Air India loses are a result of high jet fuel prices and fall in air traffic following global economic slowdown, he said. "There are (also) systematic issues which need to be corrected."
Arab Gulf economies are set to benefit from large government spending programmes and high oil prices in the second half of the year, despite concerns over political turmoil in the Middle East and Europe's sovereign debt crisis, a senior bank official has said.
The cost of any flight from Delhi and Mumbai could rise by up to Rs 3,000 soon unless the airport regulator is able to reverse a court order.
When oil prices collapse from $110 to $45, economic agents in India experience a large income windfall.
India's exports contracted 11.8 per cent to $34.38 billion in October, showed government data released on Monday. Imports jumped 16.63 per cent to $76.06 billion.
United States representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove while talking about the famous car selfie of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it spoke a thousand words.
The inflation was 11.80 per cent a week ago. The index for fuel prices declined by 1.1 per cent on account of lower prices of naphtha, aviation turbine fuel and furnace oil.
Equity markets will keenly track outcome of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting this week amid heightened expectations of an interest rate cut along with WPI inflation data, analysts said. Any further development on the USndia trade front would also drive trends in the equity market, experts said.
US strikes on Iran's three main nuclear facilities have once again raised concerns that Tehran might shut down the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's most critical chokepoints, through which a fifth of global oil and gas supply flows.
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