Saturday, December 19, 2015

How does the interest rate hike in the US affect Indian economy?

Actually its not the Indian economy that alone will be affected. World over all the economies will be affected. Only the degree will differ depending on the individual economies.  

Let me analyze how the Indian economy will get affected.

When US increases interest rates, investors evaluate the whole set of things. They dispose off risky asset classes and repay. This process will set off a selling spree in the asset classes. Sudden outflows cause temporary mismatches in currency positions, causes currency depreciation,  aggregates selling across asset classes. 

Worldwide there is always a universal demand for US dollars. When interest rates are increased in US, this causes liquidity of  dollars to dry or diminish. The external commercial borrowings of corporate in India will face pressures for repayment of principal and interest payments.  

What would be the real impact is that it affects the currency more than the economy.

Some of foreign money has to come to India because they do not earn attractive returns there. If that situation is going to change, and as the interest rate spread benefit reduces, some foreign investors may want to pull out from India to invest in their own country. That will put a pressure on rupee. But it may not affect Indian economy severely though a weakening currency will have some impact.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Industrial output to 5 year high..a positive growth....

With 17 of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showing a positive growth, the industrial output in October recorded a five-year high of 9.8 per cent year-on-year.
The higher growth was on account of a favourable base.The industrial output in September 2015 was 3.6 per cent.
Though manufacturing registered a high growth in October, the low base in major sectors like capital goods and consumer durables has contributed significantly to this high growth. Nonetheless, the outlook for growth remains positive and can be strengthened in coming months if pace of reforms continues.
The global slowdown continues to impact trade and affect India’s exports adversely thus impacting manufacturing growth especially when the domestic demand is also sluggish.
What we can infer from this is that it is a positive growth. After five years, for the first time industrial growth is 9.8 percent . It is a welcome note. Environment for industrial growth is cordial in India now. It may slowly increase step by step due to the actions of central government. Foreign direct investments are flowing into the country because of efforts of PM Narendra Modi through Make in India and other initiatives like Indo-Japan relations. Inflation is 5.5 percent. If the production increases in many sectors, essential commodities rates will come down and be beneficial to the people.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Why HSBC bank announced closure from Indian private banking business

The HSBC bank announced the closure of its private banking business in India.
Unlike mass banking, private banking is the dedicated banking services for high net worth individuals (HNIs). So what could be the reasons for shutting shop when India is the only bright spot in the world???

 The following might be the reasons that led to the closure:

The Environment Of Stress: The Indian economy is  yet to see a big pick up despite being in the bright spot as India is more consumption-oriented than other emerging markets such as China or Brazil.

Competition:The private banking space is hugely competitive. Few decades ago, foreign banks had an edge in the private banking space because of quality service, global investment tools and an untapped market. 



·     Falling Returns: Look at the investment class from commodities, gold, equity,  to real estate. They are  already instances of HNIs losing big money because of bets going wrong. There is no hope of a major recovery in many of the asset classes. Take for instance, India despite being on bright spot is now witnessing any major moves in its stock market. In fact, the stock market has plunged from a high 30,000 in March this year to 26,000 levels.

Will rupee also make its way to special drawing right like yuan??

The International Monetary Fund’s decision to include China’s yuan in its currency unit and considering it as the weighted average of several convertible currencies, known as the special drawing right, or SDR is indeed an approval of China's economy. China was the world’ largest exporter, and second-largest importer, in 2014. 

                   To be in the SDR basket, a currency needs to also be “widely used” to make payments for international transactions and “widely traded” in the principal exchange markets.Chinese currency accounts for 15% of global output and qualifies on this count too, says the IMF. But that’s a big minus. Capital controls will have to go before the yuan becomes a major global currency.
The immediate gain for China would be to have more of its trade settled in yuan, perhaps even before next October, when the yuan will officially be part of the SDR.

 Now the question is will rupee too be in the SDR basket soon???
                   As India continues to register strong growth, even as the rest of the world either shrinks, its share in world output cannot but rise. Unlike in the case of China, India’s financial sector is far more transparent. Sure, the country is nowhere close to full rupee convertibility, and we are not in  a hurry either. What we need urgently is a fully developed financial market and later lets see whether rupee will make it to the SDR.