India Economics Weekly Exports coming off the boil, RBI continues frontloading Data released this week show that Indian exporters are not immune from the broad weakening in demand as the global growth outlooks deteriorates. Meanwhile, the RBI continued frontloading policy... 5th August 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly More left in the locker The drop in FX reserves to the lowest level in almost two years has raised concerns in some quarters that the RBI’s policy of FX intervention to slow the depreciation of the rupee is not sustainable... 29th July 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly Remittances to take edge off current account concerns Data released this week showed that remittances flows into India dwarfed those to elsewhere in the world last year, helping India to maintain a small current account deficit and supporting the... 22nd July 2022 · 4 mins read
India Economics Weekly Birth of the international rupee? We doubt the RBI’s new mechanism to allow international trade to be settled in rupees will see widespread use. One area where it may see some use is in trade with Russia - a rupee settlement mechanism... 15th July 2022 · 3 mins read
India Economics Weekly Policy tweaks should provide some relief to rupee New measures to reduce gold imports are unlikely to lead to a substantially narrower current account deficit and support the rupee, not least because the decision to discourage fuel exports will have... 8th July 2022 · 7 mins read
India Economics Weekly GST hikes add to inflation concerns The Finance Ministry’s announcement this week of hikes to GST rates doesn’t signify a tighter fiscal stance, but it does add to the upside risks to inflation. This reinforces our belief that the RBI... 1st July 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly Bullion bonds are back In response to the surge in gold imports to meet demand for a hedge against inflation, the government is relaunching the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme, first introduced in 2015. By making it more... 24th June 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly Market turmoil tests RBI’s appetite for FX intervention Although the rupee fell to a record low against the US dollar this week amid a broad-based sell-off in global financial markets, it held up better than most other EM currencies. That’s probably down... 17th June 2022 · 3 mins read
India Economics Weekly Food inflation, new MSPs, RBI policy The Reserve Bank stepped up the pace of tightening by hiking the repo rate by 50bps to 4.90% this week. It also upped its inflation forecasts substantially, primarily due to food inflation. We agree... 10th June 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly Resilient economy reinforces case for frontloading GDP data for Q1 released this week showed that the economy weathered the Omicron wave pretty well, and the timelier data suggest a solid performance so far in Q2. That said, there were also further... 3rd June 2022 · 4 mins read
India Economics Weekly RBI spoiler alert, sugar export ban Comments from RBI Governor Das this week provided more support for our view that the RBI will frontload its monetary policy tightening with a 50bp hike in June, and that the Reserve Bank will continue... 27th May 2022 · 6 mins read
India Economics Weekly Heatwave damage, MPC minutes, WPI surge The government’s decision to restrict exports of wheat following heavy damage to crops from the heatwave will have limited impact on the trade balance and inflation. The bigger worry is that the... 20th May 2022 · 4 mins read
India Economics Weekly G-SAP redux? The recent jump in bond yields is reportedly causing consternation among policymakers. The big worry is the impact that higher bond yields would have on the trajectory of India’s public debt. This... 13th May 2022 · 4 mins read
India Economics Weekly Power shortages, new repo rate forecasts The ongoing heatwave and related power shortages in India pose a downside risk to growth, but we think the biggest risk is the upside one to inflation. Indeed, rising price pressures prompted the RBI... 6th May 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly Consensus may still be playing catch up Comments this week from MPC members strengthen our view that the repo rate will be hiked by 25bp (to 4.25%) in the next policy meeting in June. That view is now also shared by the consensus, which has... 29th April 2022 · 5 mins read
India Economics Weekly PM Johnson trip, NBFC clean up, WPI surges Underpinning UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to India are talks toward a free-trade agreement, which both countries are aiming to have in place before the end of the year. But the early... 22nd April 2022 · 3 mins read
