Economy Financial News

By Paul Carsten

Investing.com-- China’s economy grew slightly less than expected in the fourth quarter amid consistent pressure from weak spending and a property market decline, although growth for 2023 managed to just edge past government targets.

Investing.com — The U.S. dollar steadied at a one-month high amid increasing doubts over early interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, while sterling climbed on hot inflation data.

Investing.com — European stock markets fell sharply Wednesday on increased uncertainty over the likelihood of early interest rate cuts as well as disappointing Chinese growth data. 

Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks fell on Wednesday as Federal Reserve officials downplayed expectations for early interest rate cuts, while economic growth figures from China largely underwhelmed markets.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti on Wednesday said people with concerns about the size of the bank's balance sheet are getting «indoctrinated» by academics and should «do their homework.»

The Nifty Metal index was the second worst performer for the day, behind Nifty Bank and fell 2.5% to the day's low of 7,736.15. In the 15-stock index, 14 were on the losing side. The other major losers were APL Apollo Tubes, Jindal Steel & Power and National Aluminium Company, each down by 3.3% around 2 pm on Wednesday.

bank. Strong expansion of retail loans, at an annual rate of about 30%, was a “sign of heating up,” State Bank of India’s Dinesh Khara said in a Bloomberg Television interview at Davos on Tuesday.

interim budget, as seen in the past few decades, has whetted interest in how Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to structure it. Read our full Budget 2024 coverage here Coming right before the Lok Sabha elections, an interim budget is an effective vehicle on which an incumbent government's poll priorities can ride. Being a top national event, it gets a lot of eyeballs and remains in the public mind as the responses and debates it generates in different quarters echo for several days. It is the last big government event before elections to please chosen voter segments. On the face of it, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre seems to be free of the kind of pressures, or promises, an interim budget can generate for a ruling party facing elections just a few months later. It has scored surprising victories in three key states just last month which many see as a strong voter endorsement for the coming Lok Sabha elections, especially when the opposition's alliance has yet to take a potent shape.

Europe’s trade relationships are set to suffer as global conflicts and protectionism open a chillier chapter in international commerce, hitting growth on the continent. Trade is now growing at a slower pace than the world economy, marking a fundamental shift away from the trade-centric globalism prevalent since the end of the Cold War, Boston Consulting Group said in a report published this month. The slowdown is due to rising protectionism, including in China, and increased disruptions from conflict, BCG said.

Business Today. “There is no such thinking to move towards de-dollarisation... The dollar will continue to be the dominant currency", Shaktikanta Das added.

Investor confidence is on the rise, buoyed by expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve in 2024, which has eased concerns about a severe global economic downturn. The latest survey by BofA Securities reveals a significant shift in sentiment: 79% of investors now foresee either a 'soft' or 'no' landing for the global economy in 2024, marking a nine-month peak in optimism.

Budget 2024: The coming Budget, despite being an interim budget owing to the upcoming national elections, has generated significant interest among economy watchers in view of the government's new stated ambition of making India the third largest economy by 2030. Another reason this budget will be keenly watched is the sudden uncertainty in global trade because of the unfolding Red Sea crisis. While the short- to medium-term prospects for the Indian economy continue to be relatively bright as the inflation outlook remains benign and major potential headwinds appear far-off, some impact of the Red Sea crisis on India's foreign trade is already evident. That brings the coming interim budget into a bit of a sharper focus. As regards economic policy, Modi govt's recent path appears to have been quite consistent so far, at least in the past few budgets. Despite the abovementioned unanticipated speed bump, this consistent policy path is likely to be adhered to this time as well, economists say. So, for those who are keen to find out what this budget might bring, it might be instructive to take a relook at what FM Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the last budget. Here follows a detailed sector-wise look at last year's budget announcements:

Cost of Living Live Updates Jan 17: Rising inflation rates globally have significantly increased the cost of living, impacting the financial well-being of the average person. However, there is a bit of relief as India's retail inflation experienced a considerable decrease in September, reaching a three-month low.The government has cut the windfall tax on domestically-produced crude oil to ₹1,700 per tonne from ₹2,300 per tonne with effect from Tuesday.The tax is levied in the form of Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED).According to an official notification, SAED on export of diesel, petrol and jet fuel or ATF has been retained at nil.The new rates are effective from January 16.India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, 2022, joining a growing number of nations that tax supernormal profits of energy companies.The central government has imposed a 50 per cent export duty on molasses, amid a possibility of a decline in domestic sugar production in the current season.The proposed export duty shall come into force on January 18, 2024, an official notification from the Ministry of Finance said.Molasses are a by-product of sugar which is utilised for ethanol production to promote a green economy.

elected as Taiwan’s president. He thus secured a third term for his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The vote will shape relations between self-governing Taiwan and China, which wants the island to be governed from Beijing.

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty also witnessed a sharp selloff. Tensions in the Middle East and dimming rate cut hopes by the US Fed also weakened the sentiment, especially after a sharp rally to record-high levels. The benchmark Sensex tanked more than 1,100 points at open, while the Nifty began trading 395 points lower below 21,650.

Also Read: HDFC Bank share price cracks 7% after Q3 results; what should investors do? After a sharp rally in the markets with Nifty 50 scaling above 22,100 in the previous session, investors likely opted to take some profit out of the table, analysts said. Meanwhile, concerns over stretched valuations in the midcap and smallcap space also triggered selling. “Domestically, even though the economy is doing well and corporate earnings are good, all these positives are in the price and the valuations are elevated warranting a correction.

GDP growth.” That was the marketing blitz India took to Davos in 2006. The idea was not so much to woo the West overnight as to wean it away from its fascination with China, whose gross domestic product back then was expanding at double-digit rates. Eighteen years later, India is hosting a second coming-of-age party this week at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine town, though in vastly changed circumstances. For one thing, the most-populous nation no longer needs qualifiers like “the world’s fastest-growing free-market democracy” to highlight its exceptionalism — at 7.3%, it’s expanding quicker than any other major economy. Nor does New Delhi need to apologize for frequent political change.

Li Qiang said in Davos, Switzerland. “Last year in 2023, the Chinese economy rebounded and moved upward with an estimated growth of around 5.2%, higher than the ‘around 5%’ target set at the beginning of last year," Li said on Tuesday in his first appearance as China’s No. 2 official at the annual World Economic Forum.

₹1.5 crore each after subsidies, does not drain state coffers. “Since states may not be able to fund the expense of replacing these buses, there will be a lease model available for states," said one of the persons cited above. That would be similar to the opex model being followed for electric buses in the Faster Adoption and Manufacture of Electric and hybrid Vehicles in India (FAME-India) programme.

BEIJING — Major international investment banks expect China's economy to grow at a slower pace in 2024 than in 2023, according to annual forecasts released in the last few months.