Pandemic Financial News

The wealth gap has widened in Canada, as inflation, higher interest rates and lower property prices put the squeeze on middle-income families, a key engine of the economy.

Real estate agent Mauricio Umansky says high mortgage rates, high prices and low supply are creating difficulties for homebuyers on 'The Claman Countdown.'

Hatsun Agro has reported a 108.76 per cent rise in its January-March 2024 quarter profit after tax at Rs 52.16 crore, the company said on Tuesday. The city-based company had registered a profit after tax of Rs 24.99 crore in the same period last year. Revenues during the quarter under review grew to Rs 2,046.87 crore as against Rs 1,789.46 crore registered in the same period of last year.

film industry marked a significant recovery in 2023, with 157.4 million people attending the cinema at least once, a 29% increase from the previous year and surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 8%, according to a report by media consulting firm Ormax. However, despite these impressive numbers and box office revenues exceeding ₹12,000 crore for the first time, the growth in footfalls lagged, indicating that while more people are visiting theatres, they are doing so less frequently than before the pandemic.

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reported more than 19 per cent growth year-on-year to 1.65 crore members in fiscal 2024, the latest payroll data shows, showing improvement in the employment situation in the country, reported Press Trust of India. 

Delta Air Lines is raising pay for flight attendants and other nonunion workers by 5%

Wipro saw a fall in their combined workforce by almost 64,000 in FY24. While data points to improving demand, companies remain cautious on hiring. Wipro is fulfilling its previous hiring commitments.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro saw their wage cost in FY24 increase by more than 5.5% on average from the previous year, even as their year-on-year revenue growth slowed, averaging 3.6%. Their cumulative wage cost went up by Rs 18,036 crore in FY24, which experts attributed to continuity in lateral hiring in high-demand areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and cloud and engineering services, coupled with the salary increments, even though they are in the lower single digits.

underworld don Chhota Rajan has emerged after nine years, showcasing him in a robust state, reported TOI on Monday. The recent revelation dispelled speculations surrounding his alleged demise during the Covid pandemic or concerns about his health. However, its release has reignited apprehensions of potential attacks on him while incarcerated, prompting heightened vigilance from intelligence agencies. Rajan, presently confined in a high-security cell within Tihar Jail's Jail No. 2, faces looming threats from underworld figures Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel. The latter has recurrently issued threats of harm against him while in jail, as per a TOI report.

MintGenie, Vardarajan said that there is an ardent need to look at index funds for their underlying opportunity rather than just their low expense ratios. We believe that the banking and financial services sector is attractively positioned from a valuation perspective. Pharma hasn’t participated much in the up move and this could benefit from a medium to long-term perspective.

ethnic wear brand Indifusion, which it had acquired three years ago, amid mounting losses and falling demand. The move also signals a larger slowdown trend in the overall ethnic wear segment since last year, said retailers and mall owners. Bestseller said the brand's sales did not meet expectations or ambitions and, therefore, they decided to make strategic adjustments and realign its focus. Bestseller, known for its western casual brands such as Jack and Jones and Vero Moda, purchased Indifusion in a distress sale during the peak of the pandemic but had no prior experience in operating an Indian wear label. «For a western brand company, understanding the Indian wear segment is challenging and time consuming too. Also, there has been a general slowdown in the discretionary segment including apparel, which worsened its revival plan,» said an industry executive. Over the past two decades, a shift from ready-to-stitch clothing to ready-to-wear along with the entry of national players like BIBA, W, AND, and Global Desi has propelled the growth in branded apparel helped by a significant shift away from traditional sarees towards ethnic wear and western wear. In India, ethnic wear is the single biggest category in the women's wear segment with a share of 71% despite global fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Uniqlo pushing westernised clothing in their market.

steering committee for both International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Saturday emphasized the need for broader accountability as the institutions implemented reforms to help countries grapple with climate change and other shocks. «We must hold ourselves accountable more broadly as we become a better and bigger bank,» said Mohammed bin Hadi Al Husseini, the United Arab Emirates' minister of state for finance, who heads the joint Development Committee this year.

New York would expand access to booze under a series of measures unveiled on Thursday as part of a larger state budget agreement

ResiClub co-founder and editor-in-chief Lance Lambert discusses the U.S. housing affordability crisis on 'Making Money.'

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits didn’t change last week as the labor market continues to defy efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool it off

The gap between productivity growth in the US and Europe paints a stark and, for Europeans, depressing picture. In the two decades since 2004, US productivity growth, as measured by the value of output per hour worked, has been more than double that of the eurozone. Whereas eurozone productivity has flat-lined and even fallen slightly since the outbreak of the covid pandemic, US non-farm output per hour has risen by more than 6% over the same period—a more than adequate performance by America’s own historical standards.

Nirmala Sitharaman said challenges to the Indian economy may be mounting and the country will have to be ready to respond with the kind of agility that it did after the Covid-19 pandemic and soon after the Russia-Ukraine war started. The authorities are keeping a watch and the chief economic adviser is looking at various indications of what could be coming, she said in an interview. Tesla chief Elon Musk's impending visit to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a recognition of the high-tech manufacturing ecosystem that's been established in India by top companies, she said. Sitharaman said everything in the BJP's manifesto is clearly worked out with a sense of responsibility that taxpayers' money should be used efficiently.

There’s been a lot of hope in the air lately that the Bank of Canada is getting close to cutting interest rates.

inflation and rising levels of government debt. " Inflation is down but not gone,'' Kristalina Georgieva told reporters at the spring meeting of the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank. In the United States, she said, «the flipside'' of unexpectedly strong economic growth is that it „taking longer than expected'' to bring inflation down.

Geneva-based UN health agency released a technical document on the topic on Thursday. It said it was the first step towards working out how to better prevent this kind of transmission, both for existing diseases like measles and for future pandemic threats.

Exide Industries, a leader in energy storage and management solutions, soared to yet another all-time high, reaching ₹481.70 per share, representing a 4.70% increase. This stellar surge in stock price has resulted in a cumulative gain of 54% over a mere nine trading sessions. The recent surge in the stock has escalated its one-year return to 148% and its two-year return to nearly 200%.