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from MacroScope:
Not again, please! Brazil and India more vulnerable now to another crisis
After bad economic news from Germany, China and the United States over the past few weeks, here are two more. Brazil and India, two of the world's largest emerging economies, are increasingly vulnerable to another crisis or to the eventual end of the ultra-loose monetary policies in developed economies after five years of a severe global slowdown.
Weak demand for Brazil's exports and the voracious appetite of local consumers for imported goods widened the country's current account deficit to 2.93 percent of GDP in the 12 months through March, the widest gap in nearly eleven years. In dollar terms, that amounts to $67 billion.
To help fund this gap, Brazil could at first loosen the currency controls adopted in the past few years and let more dollars in. But if the dollar flows change too swiftly, Brazil would find itself with three other options: curb spending by growing less, allow a decline in the foreign exchange rate at the risk of fueling inflation, or burn part of its international reserves - which are large, at $377 billion, but not infinite.
Such an outlook could get even more challenging if commodities prices drop - and last week's tumble in many products sent a reminder of how volatile these markets can be, hurting not only Brazil but many other Latin American exporters.
from Deepti Govind:
Not again, please! Brazil and India more vulnerable now to another crisis
After bad economic news from Germany, China and the United States over the past few weeks, here are two more. Brazil and India, two of the world's largest emerging economies, are increasingly vulnerable to another crisis or to the eventual end of the ultra-loose monetary policies in developed economies after five years of a severe global slowdown.
Weak demand for Brazil's exports and the voracious appetite of local consumers for imported goods widened the country's current account deficit to 2.93 percent of GDP in the 12 months through March, the widest gap in nearly eleven years. In dollar terms, that amounts to $67 billion.
from Expert Zone:
India’s current account deficit: solution lies in exports
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters)
The U.S. dollar is the major currency for international trade. Most countries use it to pay for their imports and also peg the dollar for exporting products and services.
The balance of trade (net import or export) would determine if a country is a net payer or a receiver of dollars. Trade, along with other dollar inflows (portfolio/FII, FDI, inward remittances), determines the overall availability of the international currency for a country to engage itself in the global economy. This also has a bearing on determining the exchange rate of a country’s own currency with that of the dollar.
from Expert Zone:
Investment boost needed to break India’s vicious cycle
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
The current account balance reported last month hammered in the fact that India is spending more than it saves. While it had been stubbornly in the red for all but a couple of years in the last two decades, reaching a record deficit in both absolute terms and in relation to the gross domestic product was sobering.
from Global Investing:
Rupiah decline – don’t worry
Indonesia has just given the go-ahead for another leg down in the rupiah. It has cut its forecasts for the exchange rate to 9,700 per dollar compared to the 9,200 level at which the central bank used to step in. The currency has duly weakened and nervous foreigners have rushed to hedge exposure -- 3-month NDFs price the rupiah at almost 10,000 to the dollar. The rupiah last week hit a three-year low, its weakness coming on top of a dismal 2012 which saw it fall 6 percent as the current account deficit worsened. Traders in Jakarta are reporting dollar hoarding by exporters.
All that is spooking foreigners who own more than 30 percent of the domestic bond market. The currency weakness hit them hard last year as Indonesian bonds returned just 6 percent, a third of the sector's 16 percent average (see graphic).
from Expert Zone:
Concerns about current account deficit
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not those of Thomson Reuters)
The current account deficit (CAD) which touched 5.4 percent of the GDP is a matter of deep concern. It is well beyond the 3 percent danger mark which was crossed more than 18 months back and caused the rupee to depreciate.
from Global Investing:
Power failures shine light on India’s woes
Half of India's 1.2 billion people have been without power today, bringing transport, factories and offices to a grinding halt for the second day in a row and sparking rage amongst the sweltering population. That's embarrassing enough for a country that prides itself as a member of the BRIC quartet of big emerging powerhouses along with Brazil, Russia and China. But the outages will also hit economic growth which is already at 10-year lows. And the power failures, highlighting India's woeful infrastructure, bode poorly for the government's plans to step up manufacturing and lure more foreign companies to the factory sector.
India urgently needs to increase production and exports of manufactured goods. After all, software or pharma exports do not create jobs for a huge and largely unskilled population. India should be making and selling toys, clothes, shoes –- the things that helped lift hundreds of millions of Chinese, Taiwanese and Koreans out of poverty and fuelled the current account surpluses in these countries. At present, manufacturing provides less than 16 percent of India's gross domestic product (30 percent in China, 25 percent in South Korea and Taiwan) but the government wants to raise that to 26 percent by 2022. Trade minister Anand Sharma, in London last week, for a pre-Olympics conference, was eloquent on the plan to boost manufacturing exports to plug the current account gap:
from Expert Zone:
Foreign borrowing or foreign investment?
(The views expressed in this column are the author's own and do not represent those of Reuters)
The market's response to the currency measures announced on Monday was a dip in the Sensex. Much was expected after the announcement made over the weekend by the finance minister. What has been actually initiated cannot make much difference either to the rupee or to growth.
from Global Investing:
A Hungarian default?
More on Hungary. It's not hard to find a Hungary bear but few are more bearish than William Jackson at Capital Economics.
Jackson argues in a note today that Hungary will ultimately opt to default on its debt mountain as it has effectively exhausted all other mechanisms. Its economy has little prospect of strong growth and most of its debt is in foreign currencies so cannot be inflated away. Austerity is the other way out but Hungary's population has been reeling from spending cuts since 2007, he says, and is unlikely to put up with more.
from Expert Zone:
Budget FY 2012: A neutral event
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
The FY 2012 Union Budget is largely a neutral event:
The Budget provides incentives for increased infrastructure spending along with increased funding sources while highlighting supply side issues in agriculture with an effort to provide solutions.
