India's economy recovered faster than expected in the September quarter as a pick-up in manufacturing helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per cent and held out hopes for further improvement on better consumer demand.
India will see a sharp V-shaped recovery in the third and fourth quarter of the current fiscal, but FY21 GDP growth would ultimately be in negative territory as the coronavirus lockdown led to serious demand and supply dislocations, 15th Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh said on Monday.
Mortgage lender HDFC on Saturday said it has acquired 6.43 per cent stake in debt-trapped Reliance Capital by invoking pledged shares.
India emerged as the world's fifth largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report. A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic policies.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that India's high growth rate in recent years did not lead to a matching increase in formal sector jobs and labour market participation has declined. The IMF's report on its annual consultations with India released in Washington on Monday said that while India has lifted millions out of poverty as one of the world's fastest-growing economies, "recent labour market data suggests that unemployment is high while labour force participation has decreased, particularly for females."
"Our outlook on India's GDP growth is still solid against that of peers, even though growth has decelerated significantly over the past few quarters," the ratings agency said
On the apprehensions of industrialists, who are afraid of raids by Central agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department, she refered to Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj speaking out about the government's alleged intolerance of criticism.
"Every step being taken is in the interest of the country... looking at the economy with discerning view, you see that the growth may have come down, but its not a recession yet or it won't be recession ever," finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said it has come at a time when questions are being asked about the nature of the slowdown, which is affecting the global economy and bogging it down and indeed questioning if India is actually in a slowdown.
The former finance minister, who is in jail for alleged corruption in the INX Media case, also said in a tweet that the magazine is read by the Fortune 500 companies that will invest in India
The new definition is likely to be effected through an amendment to the MSME Act and may lead to further improvement in India's ease of doing business scenario.
The Congress general secretary also cited a media report which claimed that after pouring USD 45 billion into India's stock market over the past six years on hopes that Modi would unleash the country's economic potential, international money managers have sold USD 4.5 billion of Indian shares since June.
The previous low was recorded at 4.9 per cent in April-June 2012-13. The economic growth was 8 per cent in the same quarter of 2018-19.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Congress leader Anand Sharma said: "India is in a deep financial crisis. The economy is in shambles. All indicators of development are low. And India's GDP is continuously falling."
Arun Jaitley was the only minister who was alloted two heavyweight portfolios - defence and finance, in the first Modi cabinet.
India's economic growth will rebound from a five-year low this year, but would need a huge boost in spending and reforms to accelerate higher rate of expansion to double the economy's size to USD 5 trillion by 2024-25, the pre-Budget Economic Survey said Thursday.
The size of Indian economy has grown to USD 2.75 trillion in 2018-19 from USD 1.99 trillion in 2015-16 even as global economy has faltered, according to the Economic Survey 2018-19.
Praising attempts to liberalize markets within India, Hans Timmer, World Bank Chief Economist for the South Asia Region said, "that is what is needed to become more competitive."
Currently, the size of the Indian economy is about USD 2.9 trillion, he said while addressing students of the Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi.
India's economy is poised to pick up in 2019, benefiting from lower oil prices and a slower pace of monetary tightening than previously expected, as inflation pressures ease," the IMF said.
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