In a trend which sees equity markets in the “emerging economies” imitate stock markets in the US, the MSCI Emerging Market Index that collapsed over the month ending 23 March, from more than 1,100 to just above 750 (Chart 1),…
Among the many damages wrought by the inapposite Central government policy response to the Covid pandemic in India is that on the fragile framework of economic cooperation between the Centre and the states. It is clear that the real task…
On May 12, Prime Minister Modi declared that the government, in response to the Covid-19 induced crisis, is about to unveil a Rs. 20 lakh crore relief and revival package amounting to 10 per cent of GDP. This announcement came…
While everyone was busy looking at the Covid-19 numbers across the world, other “stuff was happening” in international trade: the US-China trade war, which started as far back July 2018, just got significantly worse. This on-again-off-again war has been a…
As the times get tough, the big seem to the thrive. At a time when economies world over reel under the sudden stop triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s dominant business group Reliance Industries (RIL) and global social media major…
Early evidence of the crisis in the developed world induced by the Covid-19 pandemic is trickling in. One set of numbers provide the first estimates of GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020, which includes the period when lockdowns…
At the recent G20 and IMF-WB Spring meetings held virtually in the third week of April 2020, a proposal for the IMF to issue an additional 500 billion of SDRs was blocked by the United States and – astonishingly –…
One of the many symptoms of the economic shock resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic is a sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee vis-à-vis the dollar. The value of the rupee fell from 71.3 to the dollar on February 12 to…
In a show of solidarity, some of India’s opposition leaders have declared the much-delayed relief package (titled Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana) announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on…
The cooperation between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-OPEC oil exporters, including oil-major Russia, to limit production and supply of oil and help hold oil prices has collapsed. In a dramatic post-Coronavirus-pandemic turn, discussions to extend…
