While S&P warns India of downgrade, Moody's says prospects bright
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday warned again that India still faced one-in-three chance of downgrade in its sovereign rating to junk grade over the next 24 months citing high fiscal deficit and debt burden, but rival Moody's said the country's growth prospects for 2013 have improved.
India's GDP growth dropped to 5.3% in July-September quarter, a 14-quarter low, suggesting that the full year expansion could be a decade low of around 5%.
The S&P expects India's current account deficit to remain elevated at 4% of GDP in FY 2013, just short of the record high 4.1% of GDP in the previous fiscal.
It was also not confident of the country delivering on the five-year fiscal consolidation plan outlined by finance minister P Chidambaram in October that envisages a reduction in the fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP in 2013-14.
(Sources: Economic Times, India Express, Times of India, WSJ, Business Today, Business Standard)
Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore slip to bottom of investment destinations list: PwC-ULI
Outlook for Indian property markets has turned cautious and cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi are likely to witness less appetite for real estate investment by international entities, showed a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Urban Land Institute.
Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi have slipped sharply to the 19th, 20th and 21st positions respectively in the list of top 22 investment destinations covered in this report Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2013.
The PwC-ULI report is based on 130 individuals' interviews and survey responses from over 275 executives working for property developers, investors, realty services firms, banks, investment managers, etc.
(Sources: Economic Times, Indiatimes, Business Standard, Zeenews, India Everyday)
Exports fall for 7th month in Nov
Slackening demand abroad triggered a contraction of exports for a seventh straight month in November, with outbound shipments declining 4.2 per cent to $22.3 billion against $23.3 billion in the same month last year, prompting the government to assure exporters of more incentives coming for them.
In fact, exports fell faster than the 1.7 per cent in the previous month, belying expectations that the deceleration in shipments would come down.
The data showed that imports, however, increased 6.4 per cent to $41.6 billion during the month compared to $39.1 billion, pushing the trade deficit to $19.3 billion against $15.8 billion in November 2011.
(Sources: Business Standard, Hindustan Times, i4u, Economic Times, Indiatimes, IBNLive)
Pranab Mukherjee cautions not to ignore farm sector
President Pranab Mukherjee today cautioned that it would be "fallacious" to give less importance to the agriculture sector just because its share in the country's GDP has been on the decline.
Mukherjee underscored that it was vital that the farm sector grows at a much faster pace for alleviating poverty, promoting inclusive growth, ensuring food security, create employment and boost rural income.
The President said the share of agriculture sector to the country's GDP has declined to 15.2 per cent during 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) from 23.4 per cent in the 9th Plan.
(Sources: Economic Times, Indiatimes, India Everyday, IBNLive, Press Trust of India)
Industrial output growth soars 8.2% in October
India's industrial production soared by 8.2 % in October from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday.
Analysts had expected a rise of 4.5 % in October output. Revised government figures released on Wednesday showed September output growth was revised down to a contraction of 0.7 % from a contraction of 0.4 percent.
Manufacturing, which constitutes about 76 % of industrial production, rose by 9.6 % from a year earlier, the statistics office said.
In the April-October period, industrial production expanded an annual 1.2 %c.
(Sources: Financial Express, Indian Express, Times of India, Business Standard, Hindustan Times)
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