Updates from the world of business…

Inflation unchanged at 12.14%

Inflation remained unchanged at 12.14 per cent for the week ended September 13 even as the Finance Ministry said prices of essential items like cereals, pulses, sugar and edible oils declined on weekly basis.

High inflation of 12.14 per cent, which is the same as the previous week's figure, has prompted analysts to say that price rise will remain at double digits by the end of this calendar year due to base effect.

Inflation figure remained intact despite a low base of 3.51 per cent in the year-ago period.

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that inflation of 30 essential items declined to 7.58 per cent during the week under review compared to 7.72 per cent in the previous week.

While prices of food items like salt, sea fish, tea, fruits, condiments and spices rose, rates of imported edible oil declined, giving some relief to the government which was unable to control its prices because of rise in global rates.

My View:

I think inflation is peaking round about 12% level. Because, inflation remained same even though there was the low base of last year which indicates there is substantial decrease in the prices.

And one more reason for that can be oil prices. Oil prices are cooling down which will impact other things to settle down.

Fear of possible recession leading to less demand.

So as I stated in my earlier posts, immediately from the beginning of the next year or by the end of this year inflation starts coming down from it peak value due to BASE EFFECT.

So RBI should think of reducing the interest now. Since

World financial crunch is leading to drying of liquidity. That’s why government eased the ECB norms for core sectors like infrastructure which is going to be a major expansion sector in the next five year plan.

India’s Business Confidence Index (BCI) fell to 5 year low from round about 150 points to 125 points in a quarterly measurement. Steepest fall… In 2003 it was 125 and now its round about 127 points.

HDFC Bank in Forbes Asia's top 50 list

For the second year running, HDFC Bank has featured in the prestigious 'Forbes Asia's Fabulous 50 List of companies' chosen from 500 publicly traded (listed) companies in Asia Pacific with revenues or market capitalization in excess of $5 billion (Rs 22,330 crore)

HDFC bank is the only bank from India, and only four of the 'Fab 50' companies are banks, it said in a statement.

Nine other Indian companies -- Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Reliance Industries, Bharat Heavy Electricials Ltd, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Steel, Bharati Airtel, Mahindra and Mahindra and ITC -- also made it to the list, it said.

China topped the 'Fab 50' list with a representation of 13 companies followed by India with ten.

The 'Fab 50' companies have been stacked up on parameters of robustness like long-term profitability, stock price appreciation, sales and earnings growth and projected earnings.

Companies have been recognized for their sheer resilience, "It's easy to pick winners when business is booming," the magazine points out. "Many on this list have shown they can outperform in good times and bad".


Reference
TOI
Business line