สรุปข่าวเศรษฐกิจอินเดียประจำวันที่ 13 มีนาคม 2555
Industrial output strongest in 7 months, car sales surge
Output at factories, mines and utilities grew 6.8 % from a year earlier, and the highest since June 2011, reinforcing expectations the central bank will wait until April before cutting interest rates.
Separately, the government said it was confident of returning to 8-9 % annual GDP growth soon. The economy is set to grow at around 7 % in the fiscal year that ends this month, its slowest in three years.
The Reserve Bank of India holds a monetary policy review on Thursday and is expected soon to begin cutting interest rates after raising them 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011. The RBI has another policy review set for April 17.
Manufacturing output, which makes up three-quarters of industrial output, grew an annual 8.5 % in January, fuelled by a 42.1 % surge in production of consumer non-durable goods, including beverages and food products, thanks to big spending ahead of state elections.
Indian automakers sold 211,402 cars in February, according to data released by SIAM on Monday, the biggest ever monthly total. The 13.1 % increase on the same month last year is the biggest rise since April 2011.
(Source: Financial Express, Reuters India, Economic Times, Times of India)
India, Iran set up $25-b trade target for next 4 years
India and Iran plan to reach $25 billion in annual bilateral trade in the next four years, Indian commerce ministry has said.
Heading an 80-member trade delegation to Iran, Joint Secretary of the Indian Commerce Ministry Arvind Mehta has said the current bilateral trade is around $15 billion.
The delegation was on a five-day visit to the country to explore commercial opportunities, a Tehran Times report said.
It comprised representatives from the public and private sectors, included President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Rafeeque Ahmed.
India's Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar had said last month that New Delhi would send a delegation to Iran to "promote our own exports" and investigate business opportunities created by the sanctions.
(Source: Financial Express, Hindu Business Line, Economic Times, Business Standard)
BRICS exploring emerging nations' alternative to IMF, World Bank
The BRICS group of nations is exploring the possibility of establishing a South-South Development Bank as an emerging economies' alternative to the existing West-led financial institutions, and will hold a meeting in New Delhi next week to discuss its feasibility.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has said an experts' meeting would be held in the Indian capital on March 19 as China and India, in association with Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, have taken the initiative to discuss such a bank as a BRICS-led project.
The idea is being discussed at a time when emerging nations are pushing for greater say and quotas in the economic affairs of Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and IMF, over which Europe and the US have a traditional hegemony.
They are also demanding an end to the unwritten understanding between Europe and the US, under which the World Bank always has an American head while the IMF is always led by a European.
(Source: Indian Express, Economic Times, Calcutta Telegraph)
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