There is some respite expected for India in terms of prices of imported commodities. This may ease the depletion of its foreign exchange reserves. The country has faced a widening of its merchandise trade deficit from US$ -17.91 billion to US$ -26.91 billion between October 2021 and October 2022. The commodity price data provided by the World Bank in December 2022 (termed as The Pink Sheet) shows that energy prices plummeted by...

-Hindustan Times IPCC co-chair Hans-Otto Pörtner said only a massive mobilisation towards transformation of energy use, industry, infrastructure, society and how we deal with ecosystems will keep that limit within reach New Delhi: The 1.5 degree C threshold for global warming, the redline as far as the climate crisis is concerned, may be breached as early as the end of the current decade, two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s co-chairs said. Hans-Otto Pörtner,...

-Hindustan Times At the crucial climate conference, world leaders aim to discuss climate finance and the Paris Agreement. Three times more people are displaced by climate disasters than war, United Nations chief António Guterres said at the crucial COP27 conference in Egypt on Monday as the global body sounded “early warnings" for the world. With half of humanity living in danger zones, he underlined, "ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions are supercharging extreme weather...

-Business Standard External storms are morphing into hurricanes. India is in a relatively better position than many other countries, but this period of heightened volatility will require agility and clarity on policy Despite recovering from the pandemic, repeated global shocks have presented numerous challenges for India’s economy this year, driving inflation and evoking balance of payments (BoP) pressures. These shocks will likely persist for much longer.  In the US, even amidst signs of...

-UN News Billions of people are facing the greatest cost of living crisis in a generation due to rising food and energy prices amid rapid inflation and increasing debt, leaving the most vulnerable consumers in a dire situation, said the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD on Tuesday. UNCTAD’s analysis shows that a 10 per cent increase in food prices will trigger a five per cent decrease in the incomes of the...