As 2019 has developed we have been noting the changes in the economic trajectory of India. Back on October 4th we noted this from the Reserve Bank of India as it made its 5th interest-rate cut in 2019.
The MPC also decided to continue with an accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target.
This was in response to this.
On the domestic front, growth in gross domestic product (GDP) slumped to 5.0 per cent in Q1:2019-20, extending a sequential deceleration to the fifth consecutive quarter.
For India that was a slow growth rate for what we would call the second quarter as they work in fiscal years.
What about now?
Friday brought more bad news for the Indian economy as this from its statistics office highlights.
GDP at Constant (2011-12) Prices in Q2 of 2019-20 is estimated at `35.99 lakh crore, as against `34.43 lakh crore in Q2 of 2018-19, showing a growth rate of 4.5 percent. Quarterly GVA (Basic Price) at Constant (2011-2012) Prices for Q2 of 2019-20 is estimated at `33.16 lakh crore,
as against `31.79 lakh crore in Q2 of 2018-19, showing a growth rate of 4.3 percent over the corresponding quarter of previous year.
The areas which did better than the average are shown below.
‘Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and Services related to Broadcasting’ ‘Financial, Real Estate and Professional Services’ and ‘Public Administration,
Defence and Other Services’.
The first two however slowed in the year before leaving us noting that the state supported the economy as you can see below.
Quarterly GVA at Basic Prices for Q2 2019-20 from this sector grew by 11.6 percent as compared to growth of 8.6 percent in Q2 2018-19. The key indicator of this sector namely, Union Government Revenue Expenditure net of Interest Payments excluding Subsidies, grew by 33.9
percent during Q2 of 2019-20 as compared to 22.2 percent in Q2 of 2018-19.
Regular readers will not be surprised what the weakest category was.
Quarterly GVA at Basic Prices for Q2 2019-20 from ‘Manufacturing’ sector grew by (-)1.0
percent as compared to growth of 6.9 percent in Q2 2018-19.
Also those who use electricity use as a signal will be troubled.
The key indicator of this sector, namely, IIP of Electricity registered growth rate of 0.4 percent during Q2 of 2019-20 as compared to 7.5 percent in Q2 of 2018-19.
In terms of structure the economy is 31.3% investment and 56.3% consumption. The investment element is no great surprise in a fast growing economy but it has been dipping in relative terms. The main replacement has been government consumption which was 11.9% a year ago and is 13.1% now as we get another hint of a fiscal boost.
Switching to a perennial problem for India which is its trade deficit we see that it was 3.8% of GDP in the third quarter of this year. That is a little better but there is a catch which is that it has happened via falling imports which were 26.9% of GDP a year ago as opposed to 24% now. So another potential sign of an internal economic slowing.
We can move on by noting that this time last year the GDP growth rate was 7% and that The Hindu reported it like this.
Growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) in the July-September quarter hit a 25-quarter low of 4.5%, the government announced on Friday.
The lowest GDP growth in six years and three months comes as Parliament has been holding day-long discussions on the economic slowdown, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assuring the Rajya Sabha that the country is not in a recession and may not ever be in one.
4.5% growth is a recession?
Unemployment
The numbers are rather delayed am I afraid leaving us wondering what has happened since.
Unemployment Rate (UR) in current weekly status in urban areas for all ages has been estimated as 9.3% during January-March 2019 as compared to 9.8% during April- June 2018.
Inflation
This has been picking up as the Economic Times reports below.
Inflation touched 4.62%, according to the data released by the statistics office on Wednesday, compared to 3.99% in the month of September. Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 3.38% in October last year.
Sadly for India’s consumers and especially the poor much of the inflation is in food prices as inflation here was 7.9%. Vegetables were 26.1% more expensive than a year before and it would seem the humble onion which is a big deal in India is at the heart of it. From India Today.
Households and restaurants in India are reeling under pressure as onion prices have surged exponentially across the country. A kilo of onion is retailing at Rs 90-100 in most Indian states, peaking at Rs 120-130 per kilo in major cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Odisha, and Pune.
For those wondering about any inflation in pork prices then the answer is maybe.The meat and fish category rose at an annual rate of 9.75%.
Manufacturing
We noted in the GDP numbers that there was a fall but this seems to have sped up at the end of the quarter as it fell by 3.9% in September on a year before driven by this.
The industry group ‘Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semitrailers’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 24.8 percent followed by (-) 23.6 percent in ‘Manufacture of furniture’ and (-) 22.0 percent in ‘Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment’ ( India Statistics)
Fiscal Policy
From Reuters last month.
After the corporate tax cuts and lower nominal GDP growth, Moody’s now expects a government deficit of 3.7 per cent of GDP in the fiscal year ending in March 2020, compared with a government target of 3.3 per cent of GDP.
Also there is this from the Economic Times.
In India, private debt in 2017 was 54.5 per cent of the GDP and the general government debt was 70.4 per cent of the GDP, a total debt of about 125 of the GDP, according to the latest IMF figures.
The ten-year bond yield is 6.5% showing us that India does face substantial costs in issuing debt.
Comment
We get another hint of the changes at play as we note this from the Reserve Bank of India in November and note that the result was 5%.
For Q1:2019-20, growth forecast was revised
down from 7.2 per cent in the November 2018 round
to 6.1 per cent in the July 2019 round.
As we look forwards it is hard to see what will shake India out of its present malaise.Of course if the daily news flow that the trade war is fixed ever turns out to be true that would help. But otherwise India may well still be suffering from the demonetarisation effort of a couple of years or so ago.
After the falls of last year the Rupee has been relatively stable and is now at 71.6 versus the US Dollar. A lower Rupee is something which gives with one hand ( competitiveness) and takes away with another ( cost of imports especially oil). But as it starts its policy meeting tomorrow the RBI will feel the need to do something in addition to changing its fan chart for economic growth ( lower) and inflation ( higher) giving us what is for India something of a stagflationary influence.
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