Current Affairs October 2019 - Economic
1 - Foreign investors pour in Rs 7,714 cr into capital markets in September
Foreign investors infused a net 7,714 crore rupees into the domestic capital markets in September 2019. As per latest depositories data, FPIs poured around 7,850 crore rupees into equities and withdrew around 136 crore from the debt segment between 3rd to 27th September.
The Union Government slashed corporate tax rate. The enhanced tax surcharge will not apply on capital gains arising from sale of any security, including derivatives, in the hands of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). SEBI also simplified KYC requirements for FPIs and granted them permission to carry out off-market transfer of securities.
2 - Forex reserves decline by USD 388 million to USD 428.57 billion
India's forex reserves declined by USD 388 million to USD 428.572 billion for the week ended September 20 due to a slide in core currency and gold assets. The foreign currency assets declined by USD 125 million to USD 396.670 billion.
The value of gold reserves declined by USD 259 million to USD 27.843 billion. According to the data, country's special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund increased by USD 3 million to USD 1.435 billion during the week, while country's reserve position with the Fund declined by USD 6 million to USD 3.623 billion.
3 - CCI cleared 70% stake acquisition in SABIC by Saudi Aramco
The Competition Commission of India has given approval to the acquisition of 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) by Saudi Arabian Oil Company. Through this acquisition, Saudi Aramco will have sole control over SABIC. The transaction value was pegged at 69.1 billion dollar.
In India, SABIC is mainly active in the supply of agri-nutrient and petrochemical products while Saudi Aramco is active in the supply of crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, base oil and petrochemical products.
4 - CCI approved the acquisition of shareholding in GMR Airports Limited by TUTPL, Valkyrie and Solis
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of shareholding in GMR Airports Limited (GAL) by TRIL Urban Transport Private Limited (TUTPL), Valkyrie Investment Pte. Ltd. (Valkyrie) and Solis Capital (Singapore) Pte. Limited (Solis).
The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of up to 55.2% equity stake in GAL collectively by TUTPL, Valkyrie and Solis. TUTPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited (“TRIL”). The deal will pump ₹1,000 crore into GMR Airports, and purchase ₹7,000 crore of the airport unit’s equity shares from the parent.
5 - GST Revenue collection for September, 2019
The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of September, 2019 is ₹ 91,916 crore of which CGST is ₹ 16,630 crore, SGST is ₹ 22,598 crore, IGST is ₹ 45,069 crore (including ₹ 22,097 crore collected on imports) and Cess is ₹7,620 crore (including ₹ 728 crore collected on imports). The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of August up to 30th September, 2019 is 75.94lakh.
The revenue during September, 2019 is declined by 2.67% in comparison to the revenue during September, 2018. During April-September, 2019 vis-à-vis 2018, the domestic component has grown by 7.82% while the GST on imports has shown negative growth and the total collection has grown by 4.90%.
6 - Industrial output declined by 1.1% in August
Industrial output declined by 1.1% in August due to poor performance by manufacturing, power generation and mining sectors. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by 4.8% in August 2018.
The overall IIP growth during April-August period was 2.4%, down from 5.3% in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. The manufacturing sector, which contributes over 77% to the IIP, showed a dip of 1.2% in output during August 2019. Electricity generation declined by 0.9%. Mining sector was flat at 0.1 %.
7 - Infosys selected as main supplier of digital transformation services for Volvo Cars
Infosys has been selected as the main supplier to deliver Volvo Cars’ digital transformation services for its Enterprise Digital Commercial Operations Applications and Products.
Infosys will offer next generation application services leveraging its Global Delivery Model (GDM), agile delivery, automation and other service optimization levers to deliver effective service operations. Based on the Scale Agile Framework (SAFe), Infosys will enable transformation of application management and application development deliveries to a 100 percent agile operating model.
8 - Moody's cuts India GDP growth forecast to 5.8% for FY20
Moody's Investors Service slashed its 2019-20 GDP growth forecast for India to 5.8% from 6.2% earlier. This is lowest projection after the Reserve Bank of India cut the GDP growth to 6.1%.
Moody's cited the deceleration to an investment-led slowdown that broadened into consumption, driven by financial stress among rural households and weak job creation. The rating agency expected India’s GDP growth to pick up to 6.6% in FY21 and to around 7% over the medium term.
9 - India Ratings lowered India’s GDP growth forecast in 2019-20 to 6.1%
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) slashed India's gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2019-20 to 6.1%. The cut in forecast follows the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) recent estimate of first quarter (April-June) growth at 5%, which came in lower than India Ratings' estimate of 5.7%.
Ind-Ra has cited slowdown in both rural and urban consumption demand growth as one of the key reasons for the downward revision of GDP.
10 - IMF cuts World and India growth rates
World Economic Outlook October 2019, global Manufacturing Downturn, Rising Trade Barriers report was released by IMF.
Highlights
Global growth is forecast at 3.0 percent for 2019, its lowest level since 2008–09.
India’s growth projections have also been downgraded to 6.1% and 7.0% in 2019 and 2020.
China’s GDP was projected to grow at 6.1% and 5.8% in 2019 and 2020.
U.S. GDP would grow at 2.4% and 2.1% in 2019 and 2020.
World output is projected to increase to a modest 3.4% in 2020.
11 - Retail inflation spikes to 3.99% in Sep
Retail inflation spiked to 3.99% in September 2019 mainly due to higher prices of food items. The consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was registered at 3.28% in August 2019.
The price rise in the food basket was recorded at 5.11% in September 2019. The inflation for vegetables shot up to 15.40% in September 2019. However, the headline inflation still remained within the comfort zone of the Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in CPI while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy.
12 - Wholesale inflation eased by 0.33% in Sep
Wholesale inflation eased to more than three-year low of 0.33% in September 2019 mainly due to falling prices of fuel and certain food articles. The wholesale price index-based inflation was 1.08% in August 2019. Inflation for food articles, as a basket, remained nearly flat at 7.47% in Sep 2019.
For manufactured products, it slipped to negative territory at 0.42% as against no change in prices during August 2019.
13 - RIL became first Indian company to hit Rs. 9 lakh crore m-cap
Oil-to-telecom major Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday became the first company in India to hit the market capitalisation of Rs 9 lakh crore. IT giant TCS became the second company to reach the Rs 8 lakh crore mark. The m-cap figure of companies changes daily with stock price movement.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch had announced that Reliance Industries would be the first Indian company to reach $200-billion market cap in 24 months. Market capitalization is the market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares.
14 - India’s marine exports to China heading for USD 1 billion mark
India’s exports of marine products to China has tripled and touched almost USD 800 million, in the first nine months of 2019, as per the data released by China’s customs authority recently. India’s marine exports are expected to cross USD 1 billion mark by the end of this year 2019. A Chinese trade delegation visited India and signed a contract for import of marine products worth USD 500 million in the next two years.
Embassy of India has been promoting various products such as Indian sugar, rice, pharmaceuticals, tea, oil meals in which India has proven global strength in China.
