For some time now, global economic news reporting has been dominated by the growth slowdown in China. The tone of that reporting is conflicted. On the one hand, there is a barely suppressed sense of satisfaction or “schadenfreude” (pleasure derived…
The “inevitable striving of finance capital”, Lenin had written in Imperialism, (is) “to enlarge its spheres of influence and even its actual territory”. He was writing of course in a world marked by inter-imperialist rivalry, where this striving took the…
The fact that the world economy has slowed down since the financial crisis of 2008 is beyond dispute. In fact even conservative American economists have started using the term “secular stagnation” to describe the current situation (though they have their…
The financial media in India and abroad are flagging the likelihood of a meltdown in India’s financial sector, resulting from large scale defaults on personal loans. Even the Financial Times of London has chosen to devote considerable column space to an article…
Europe is clearly battling to stall its decline in the global economy. Most recently, the Mario Draghi report on “The future of European competitiveness” commissioned by the European Union reflected that sentiment. At the centre of Europe’s economic decline is…
The Sri Lankan government announced that it has reached an agreement with its foreign private creditors to restructure the $12.5 billion of its external debt that they hold. The agreement incorporates a novel instrument: a macro-linked bond for which the payout…
A renewed focus on retail lending, or the provision of personal loans, by India’s banking system (and the non-bank financial companies they support), is giving the otherwise confident Reserve Bank of India some cause for concern. That the period after…
Figures on India’s balance of payments in financial year 2023-24, recently released by the Reserve Bank of India, have added to the hype on India’s growth story. India’s current account deficit, or the surplus of current foreign exchange expenditures and…
For some time now, there has been much discussion of and concern expressed about a decline in the net financial savings of the household sector in India. Overall household savings as a percentage of gross national disposable income (GNDI) rose…
It is generally perceived that India’s growth trajectory has been consumption-led. Many of the enthusiastic international assessments of future economic growth prospects in India are based on the anticipation of the massive domestic market likely to be created by India’s…
