-Livemint.com The government’s inordinately large food stockpiles have resulted in an artificial market scarcity On 7 January, the ministry of statistics released India’s advance estimates of national income for 2019-20, pegging the economy’s growth rate this financial year at 5%. Based on data available for the first two quarters, this seems an overestimate. Most indicators suggest that actual growth may be lower than 5%. This is bad news, especially since there is...

-The Hindu Why is the scenario of rising prices and falling growth a cause for worry? Can the government or the Reserve Bank of India do anything? The story so far: The rise in retail price inflation to a nearly six-year high of 7.35% in December has led to increasing worries that the Indian economy may be headed towards stagflation. The current rise in retail inflation has been attributed mainly to the...

-The Indian Express High inflation reduces room for rate cuts. With limited fiscal space, FM must spell out plans to revive growth. Latest inflation data seems to corroborate fears articulated by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its December meeting when it refrained from cutting the benchmark repo rate. Retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), has surged to 7.35 per cent in December 2019, up from 5.54 per...

-The Hindu Misplaced optimism needs to cede ground to tangible policy interventions The government’s advance estimates for economic output and growth for the fiscal year ending in March may raise eyebrows, but only for the wrong reasons. The National Statistical Office (NSO) has estimated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will expand by 5% in the 12-month period, in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s sharp downward revision last month in its...

-PTI The World Bank said India's growth rate was likely to recover to 5.8 per cent in the following financial year. Washington: The World Bank has projected a five per cent growth rate for India in the 2019-2020 fiscal, but said it was likely to recover to 5.8 per cent in the following financial year. The growth rate for Bangladesh has been projected to remain above seven per cent through the forecast horizon...