Tuesday, October 27
Success has many fathers, failure an orphan. The cliche is most radically broken in popular economic commentary deciphering growth cycles. Explaining growth slowdowns - or upticks - via quick attributions is a favourite with the economic commentariat.The recent macro slowdown is linked to RBI's tight monetary policy and ostensibly dollar-peg stance. Former CEA Arvind Subramanian has recently argued that RBI's stiff dollar peg over the past two years has intensified monetary tightness and undermined export competitiveness, worsening the slowdown.It's useful to test the hypothesis against data and on first principles. Rupee's slide: Over decades, the dollar-rupee has always moved in a step-function - several years of flattishness, even rupee appreciation, followed by a period of sharp deprec
The Gold loans in the country has registered strong growth recently says a report by Reserve Bank of India.The report highlighted that the gold loans witnessed rapid growth in the period ending September 2024 compared to the same time a year earlier. This growth highlighted the increasing reliance on gold as collateral for meeting financial needs.RBI said "Gold loans have clocked rapid growth in the period ending September 2024 as compared to a year ago"However, the RBI in the report also raised concerns over irregular practices among certain supervised entities (SEs) involved in gold loans.To address these issues, RBI said that it had issued guidelines on September 30, 2024, urging SEs to review their policies, processes, and practices for gold loans. The identified gaps include deficienc
India's manufacturing activity grew in December at its weakest pace for the year amid softer demand and despite easing cost pressures and strong jobs growth, a survey showed, dulling the outlook for the start of 2025. That confounded a preliminary reading showing faster expansion last month in a sector that accounts for about a fifth of overall output in Asia's third-largest economy, which grew at its weakest pace in seven quarters in July-September. The HSBC final India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, fell to 56.4 - the weakest since December 2023 - little changed from November's 56.5 but below an early estimate that showed a rise to 57.4. Still, manufacturing output has shown sustained expansion with the index remaining above 50, which separates grow
Ashok Leyland shares jumped 3% to a high of Rs 229.40 on the BSE today after releasing its December sales numbers wherein the company posted a 5% YoY increase in its total sales to 16,957 units versus 16,154 in December 2023.However, the cumulative sales have fallen by 2%, from 1,38,246 units in 2023 to 1,35,921 units in 2024.Domestically, December 2024 recorded a 4% increase in sales to 15,713 units, while the cumulative sales dropped by 3% from 129,995 units in 2023 to 126,126 units in 2024.The Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCV) category, in the domestic market, saw a 6% YoY growth in December 2024, rising from 9,932 units in December 2023 to 10,488 units.The M&HCV category includes M&HCV Trucks and M&HCV Buses.Combining the domestic and export sales figures,
