Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

All that glitters is not gold !

Don’t get carried away by recovery, further downside ahead

recession Stock markets stage good recovery last week with BSE gaining nearly 5% and NSE gaining around 4 %. The recovery was backed by similar story in the global markets. However, Investment Guru is of the view that one should refrain from buying at current levels and should actually try to get out if one is getting good price or recovery in any stock. The global economic downtrend continues unabated and we are still in the mid of economic slowdown. The pull back rally should not be considered as a sign of recovery of economy. Let’s take a look at some indicators.

FII’’s continue to be Sellers

 invest-march

Looks like Foreign Institutional investors have forgot buying ! They have been net sellers to the tune of 53,000 Crore in Year 2008 and have already become net seller to the tune of 9,217 Crore in Year 2009. There has been a significant drop in the FII attraction towards the emerging markets more so due to higher redemptions faced by India Centric funds. Same has been the case with MF’s who have seen rise in redemption pressure and have been net sellers of 2,983 Crores in 2009 as against Net buyer of 11,728 Crores in 2008. With US economy already in Recession and European countries joining the list, the probability of FII’s Investment returning to India in big way is ruled out even at current levels. This is further going to put pressure on Indian markets who are looking for buying support ….but investors seem to be in mood to loose more and are waiting for dust to settle before they make a call.

India witnesses Slowdown in growth

The claims of 10% growth rate are a thing of past. Realistic targets are being talked about in view of global meltdown and the new estimates are somewhere between 4-6% of GDP growth for India. Though it has been though for the markets to digest these numbers after they became used to hear about 10% growth, Investment guru is of the view that even at these lower levels India would be second only to china in terms of growth rate. Look at china, these guys have virtually forgot to talk in terms of single digit after delivering double digit growth for years and are now set to post a single digit growth of 6-7%. Most of the developed economies are expected to post negative growth confirming their recessionary trends.

The slowdown in growth coupled with deflationary trend trends in economy would act as a deterrent to the sensex to move up sharply. There is a need to readjust our expectation in line with current growth estimates and I think the current levels of sensex are not extremely cheap. Corporate profits are bound to shrink resulting in shortfall in tax collection targets of government and reduced expenditure on infrastructure and public spend. The deflationary economy would create a situation of deferred consumption which may further detoriate the situation. There is a further downside left in markets and current rally would be just a eye wash.  These short spurts would keep coming and going due to short term demand –supply mismatch and market reactions to short term developments. Use them to adjust your portfolios.

Global Economy Updates

US is still in pretty bad shape. Looks like the giants have still not learnt the lesson, AIG is learnt to pay retention bonuses from the bailout package it received. The company was saved after a $170 billion bailout package by US Treasury. The recession gripping the U.S. deepened last month as factories and home builders scaled back even more. Bloomberg reports that industrial output fell by 1.3% in February. Former St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole said the U.S. is “in a terrible situation,” led by officials who are unsure how to avert the rescue of financial companies and unwind current bailouts.

Morgan Stanley has said in its outlook that the S&P 500 Index may fall 25 percent in the next few months as earnings slump for a seventh quarter and the recession deepens. U.S. stocks are still expensive even after the S&P 500 dropped 52 percent in 17 months, according to a method used by Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing and mentor of Warren Buffett. He measured equities against a decade of profits to smooth out distortions, a method that shows the S&P 500 traded at 14.5 times earnings yesterday, according to data compiled by Yale University Professor Robert Shiller. At the bottom of the three worst recessions since 1929, the average ratio fell below 10. To reach that, the S&P 500 would have to sink more than 30 percent.

There is a interesting Global recession Status update on Moody’s Economy.com website. You can see the chart here. It shows the whole of US, Canada, Russian Federation, Most of the European region, African region, part of Asia such as Singapore, Thailand and Japan already under recession and Countries such as India, Brazil,Argentina,Mexico, China, Middle East Asia, Australia and Pakistan under Risk of recession. 

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India inches towards deflationary economy

deflation China’s National Bureau of Statistics has announced that the nation’s consumer price index fell 1.6% in February from a year earlier, the first year-on-year drop in more than six years. Meanwhile, the producer price index in February dropped 4.5% from a year earlier, a steeper fall than January’s 3.3% decline.

With China officially announcing its entry into a deflationary economy, India is close on the heels to follow suit. After witnessing months of increasing inflation, people may sigh relief to see a sharp decrease in inflation but they are in for a much bigger surprise. India is soon moving into deflation zone!! But is it really a sign of relief when we are witnessing a slowdown in economy ? It may actually start a new series of trouble for the economy and drift the growth rate down further

Deflationary Economy & India

  • Deflation occurs when Inflation rate falls to below Zero %. As per last data released India’s Inflation stood at 3.03 % as against 12.9% in August 2008.
  • Experts are of view that India will reach deflation by Apr’09. This will be India’s first face-to-face wit deflation after March, 1976.
  • The fall in inflation is primarily led by falling crude prices and commodity prices.
  • Though a deflationary trend might be a welcome move for the government in an election year, this would induce further slowdown in economy if not dealt with properly

Impact of Deflationary Economy

What happens when an economy moves into deflationary trend ? For people like us, who have been born and brought up in a inflationary economy, the realities of deflationary trends might require us to understand the real impact. Deflation in commodities bring a shift in consumer buying pattern and people start deferring their buying in anticipation of further price drops. This is true even for Investments as people tend to hoard cash instead of investing in securities as they fear that the value of their investments would depreciates. This is turns stalls the growth of the economy. In this situation Banks would be forced to further reduce their lending rates to drastically low levels (even to zero if deflation persists for a long duration).

However, deflationary trends in India are expected to remain till end of the year as it counts on its ever increasing population to counter the evils of slowdown and bring back faster pace of growth. What would finally happen, lies unfolded in the arms of the Future, but India needs to prepare itself to counter with this phenomenon in such a way that the impact on growth is minimal.

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Govt. approves Sixth Pay commission report

Independence Day gift for Govt. Employees

Good news for Central Government employees and defence forces. UPA Government has approved the 6th Pay commission report which was submitted to it in March,2008. The Six Pay commission was headed by Justice B N Srikrishna.


Highlights of Sixth Pay Commission Report


  • The average increase in salaries is to the tune of 21%.


  • The hike is with effect from January 1,2006. You can download the Salary Calculator spreadsheet to find out your Revised Salary after the pay hike.


  • The hiked salary would be given to the employees beginning September this year and the arrears from January 2006 would be given in cash in two installments - 40 per cent this fiscal and 60 per cent in 2009-10.


  • The government has increased the minimum entry level salary of a government employee to Rs 7,000 against Rs 6,660 recommended by the Commission.


  • The rate of Annual Increment has also been increased from 2.5% to 3%.


  • At least three assured promotions for all defence forces personnel and civilian employees under the modified Assured Career Progression scheme.


  • While civilians would get this after 10, 20 and 30 years of service, defence forces jawans would be promoted under ACP after 8, 16 and 24 years.


  • The government has also approved Military Service Pay for armed forces personnel, under which officers would get Rs 6,000 over and above their pay per month.


  • The lowest limit of disability pension for defence personnel has been doubled to Rs 3100 a month.


  • The Revision in pay structure would increase the total emoluments of an employee at the lowest level beyond Rs. 10,000 per month (including allowances)


  • In a significant modification of the Pay Commission recommendation, the government has raised the fitment rate, which helps in arriving at higher allowances in view of merger of 50 per cent DA with basic pay, in revised pay bands to 40 per cent as against 28 per cent.


Impact of Pay Commission recommendations



  • Well, this is a three cheers news for the Central government employees as well as the armed forces since they would get 21% higher pay than what they used to get earlier. Their friends in private sector may feel jealous about it.


  • Since a large chuck of the Government employees come under the Middle Class segment, this would help increase their purchasing power and hence standard of living. The arrears from January,2006 would be an additional bonus and would mainly be used as saving corpus.


  • The Pay hike would cost the exchequer Rs 22,131 crore -- Rs 15,717 crore on the General Budget and Rs 6,414 crore on the Railway Budget -- in 2008-09. This would increase the fiscal deficit as a % of GDP.


  • The government would have to find additional sources of funds to bridge the deficit. Since the Macro environment is already worsening due to higher inflation, lower IIP and lower GDP growth estimates, the pay revision would be an additional challenge for the government.



  • Download Your Salary Calculator



  • Download Sixth Pay commission Report

  • Update:

    Salary Calculator (Modified as per Cabinet approved recomendations ) from Staff Corner (staffcorner.com) Click below to download

  • Sixth Pay Commission Calculator Option 1

  • Sixth Pay Commission Calculator Option 2
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