(Bloomberg) — India’s delay in appointing a new central bank committee to decide interest rates is just the latest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key economic reforms that are failing to gain traction during the nation’s worst crisis in decades.
Three of his keystone reforms — the goods and services tax, a bankruptcy and insolvency law and the Monetary Policy Committee — have been mired in problems since the Covid-19 outbreak upended economic activity.Modi’s administration has delayed payments it promised India’s 28 states as compensation under the new consumption tax regime, increasing tension between the two tiers of government. The bankruptcy law has been suspended, frustrating the loan recovery efforts of lenders already saddled with one of the world’s worst bad-loan problem. And on top of that, the government didn’t appoint members to the central bank’s MPC in time for its scheduled policy decision last week, delaying possible stimulus that the economy desperately needs.
“In such uncertain times, the least we can do is avoid unnecessary uncertainty. The MPC episode has just added to the ongoing chaos,” said Amol Agrawal, an assistant professor in the department of economics and public policy at Ahmedabad University. “Reforms have surely been dealt a blow by the pandemic.”
K.S. Dhatwalia, a spokesman for the government, didn’t immediately respond to a call on his mobile phone for comment.
Record Slump
Modi has been hailed by investors for his business-friendly reforms, which had been under discussion for years but pushed through in the first three years when he first took office in 2014.The stall in reforms is weighing on the outlook for Asia’s third-largest economy, which has gone from one of the fastest growing in the world to among the worst hit during the pandemic. India’s gross domestic product contracted a record 23.9% in the June quarter from a year ago, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is predicting the economy will shrink 14.8% in the fiscal year through March 2021.
The government is still pushing through reforms in the farm sector and seeking changes to the nation’s rigid labor rules.
The GST dispute is particularly worrying. Modi’s government is short of 2.35 trillion rupees ($32 billion) of the 3 trillion rupees it owes states this year, and is encouraging them to borrow the shortfall amount until it can resume payments when tax revenue improves. With states unable to deliver key spending programs, some have threatened to take the matter to court.
On the bankruptcy law, banks were broadly against the government’s blanket suspension of it to provide relief to businesses hurt by the pandemic. The move will further delay bankruptcy settlements for banks grappling with huge bad-debt ratios.
MPC Delay
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code “is the most effective instrument available to banks for recovering their defaulted loans to the best extent possible,” Subhash Chandra Garg, a former top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry in the Modi government, told businessmen recently. “Suspension of IBC should be revoked,” he said, adding that the code had created an “institutional path and a shift in the effectiveness of dispute resolution.”
The delay in appointing new MPC members at the Reserve Bank of India after their terms ended in August adds a new layer of complication for bankers. It could weigh on lending at a time when credit growth is already weak.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week the delay in appointments to the MPC wasn’t by design, and the names of three new external members would be announced shortly. She is due to meet her counterparts from states Monday on the GST compensation matter.
While investors continue to be optimistic about India’s pro-market reforms, “we have seen a number of events that at least raise eyebrows in a very short period of time and could be considered bad from an institutional quality perspective, said Hugo Erken, head of international economics at Rabobank. That could show up “sooner or later in ratings, yields, risk appetite and even economic growth.”
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Canada’s inflation rate fell to two per cent last month, finally hitting the Bank of Canada’s target after a tumultuous battle with skyrocketing price growth.
The annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021.
Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report on Tuesday attributed the slowdown in part to lower gasoline prices.
Clothing and footwear prices also decreased on a month-over-month basis, marking the first decline in the month of August since 1971 as retailers offered larger discounts to entice shoppers amid slowing demand.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures of inflation, which strip out volatility in prices, also edged down in August.
The marked slowdown in price growth last month was steeper than the 2.1 per cent annual increase forecasters were expecting ahead of Tuesday’s release and will likely spark speculation of a larger interest rate cut next month from the Bank of Canada.
“Inflation remains unthreatening and the Bank of Canada should now focus on trying to stimulate the economy and halting the upward climb in the unemployment rate,” wrote CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.
Benjamin Reitzes, managing director of Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO, said Tuesday’s figures “tilt the scales” slightly in favour of more aggressive cuts, though he noted the Bank of Canada will have one more inflation reading before its October rate announcement.
“If we get another big downside surprise, calls for a 50 basis-point cut will only grow louder,” wrote Reitzes in a client note.
The central bank began rapidly hiking interest rates in March 2022 in response to runaway inflation, which peaked at a whopping 8.1 per cent that summer.
The central bank increased its key lending rate to five per cent and held it at that level until June 2024, when it delivered its first rate cut in four years.
A combination of recovered global supply chains and high interest rates have helped cool price growth in Canada and around the world.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem recently signalled that the central bank is ready to increase the size of its interest rate cuts, if inflation or the economy slow by more than expected.
Its key lending rate currently stands at 4.25 per cent.
CIBC is forecasting the central bank will cut its key rate by two percentage points between now and the middle of next year.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected on Wednesday to deliver its first interest rate cut in four years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
