India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 23rd Jul’24 presented the Union Budget 2024-25. This was the first budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term in the government. Overall, the broad themes from the interim Budget remained unchanged. The Union budget 2024-25 focused on infrastructure, fiscal consolidation, job creation, MSMEs, women, and agricultural support. Broadly … Read more
Siddhartha Sanyal, Chief Economist & Head-Research, Bandhan Bank, says there is no urgency on the part of the government or the finance ministry to cut down their projected fiscal deficit or the borrowing number at this moment, possibly they can afford to take a call on that at a later date. But in general, with … Read more
Siddhartha Sanyal, Chief Economist at Bandhan Bank, says, “Growth is improving, interestingly from the rural side where there was a lot of concern at some point of time, it looks like some of the indicators have started gradually improving. Globally, the concerns around inflation is coming back a bit, but still in the case of … Read more
Santanu Sengupta, Chief India Economist, Goldman Sachs, says India’s public debt to GDP at 80% plus is one of the highest among EMs. So though India has had high growth, over a period of time. that debt to GDP number needs to consolidate below 80% and probably get closer to 75%. That is why the … Read more
Despite growing concerns in the investor community that coalition politics might force Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to relax the fiscal consolidation path and pivot towards welfare spending from capex, global brokerage firm Goldman Sachs is expecting the contrary. “We expect the general government to stick to the announced fiscal deficit target of 5.1% of GDP … Read more
“We expect the NDA government to sustain focus on capex-led growth around PLI, Roads, Ports, Aviation, Defence, Railways, and Green energy, given a 20 bps lower fiscal deficit in FY24 (Than RE), normal monsoons, and Rs 2.1 lakh crore dividend from RBI,” says Amnish Aggarwal, Director – Institutional Research, Prabhudas Lilladher.In an interview with ETMarkets, … Read more
Mumbai: India’s benchmark indices soared to fresh all-time highs on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of India’s larger-than-expected dividend payment to the government prompted traders to cover some of their bearish bets. Receding uncertainty over the BJP’s performance in the general elections also bolstered sentiment, with the NSE Nifty ending a whisker away from 23,000. … Read more
New Delhi: The central government’s fiscal deficit, in absolute terms, could be slightly better than the revised estimates for FY24, on the back of better than expected revenue receipts, an official said. In the interim Budget in February, the government pegged its FY24 fiscal deficit at ₹17.35 lakh crore, against the budget estimate of ₹17.89 … Read more
As India prepares for elections this spring, confidence about the country’s prospects seems ubiquitous. The country has just finalized a new trade agreement; it’s with a small trading bloc composed of Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland, but the headline number for new foreign investment it commits to bringing in, $100 billion, is nevertheless eye-catching. The … Read more
Pranjul Bhandari, Managing Director, Chief India Economist, Asean Economist, HSBC, says “the construction-led activity has given an alternate source of income to rural India. And all of these things come in cycles. I think we are on the upward side of a new financial cycle and things like credit growth, housing prices, construction activity all … Read more
