NEW DELHI, May 17 (Reuters) – India’s economic growth story is intact and the current account deficit under control, senior Finance Ministry officials told a team from global ratings agency Fitch on Thursday, weeks after S&P cut its outlook for Asia’s third largest economy.

The visit came as the Indian rupee tumbled to a record low against the dollar, with the crisis in the euro zone adding pressure on a currency already under fire from weak current account and fiscal deficits.

In April, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the outlook for India to negative from stable, citing poor fiscal health and deteriorating economic indicators.

The Indian team pointed to surging inflows of foreign money to allay concern raised by Fitch about the current account deficit, a senior Finance Ministry official at the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

“We pitched for an upgrade,” the official said.

“You look at FDI inflows … FII inflows have been tremendous this year,” he said, referring to foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investors.

The official defended India’s economic performance saying there were “many positives” and unlike many other major economies, India had not been downgraded during the last few years of global financial turmoil.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s economic growth story is intact and the current account deficit under control, senior Finance Ministry officials told a team from global ratings agency Fitch on Thursday, weeks after S&P cut its outlook for Asia’s third largest economy.

The visit came as the Indian rupee tumbled to a record low against the dollar, with the crisis in the euro zone adding pressure on a currency already under fire from weak current account and fiscal deficits.

In April, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the outlook for India to negative from stable, citing poor fiscal health and deteriorating economic indicators.

The Indian team pointed to surging inflows of foreign money to allay concern raised by Fitch about the current account deficit, a senior Finance Ministry official at the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

“We pitched for an upgrade,” the official said.

“You look at FDI inflows … FII inflows have been tremendous this year,” he said, referring to foreign direct invest and foreign institutional investors.

The official defended India’s economic performance saying there were “many positives” and unlike many other major economies, India had not been downgraded during the last few years of global financial turmoil.

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Kolkata’s red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain’s East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonize the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still.

For the past year, the sprawling building has been occupied by Mamata Banerjee, the diminutive chief minister of West Bengal state who is perhaps the largest obstacle to economic reforms that would allow 21st-century traders free access to India’s consumer markets.

To supporters who affectionately call her “Didi”, or “Big Sister”, Banerjee is a hero who ended more than three decades of communist rule in West Bengal. They say she shelters farmers and shopkeepers from the harsh winds of globalization, while guiding West Bengal towards its rightful place as an economic and cultural powerhouse and India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.

But after a series of erratic moves, including the arrest of an academic who forwarded a joke email about her to his friends, critics see her as an autocrat in the making. Weekly magazine India Today branded her the “Queen of Democrazy”.

Banerjee’s widely ridiculed antics and disappointment with her administration in West Bengal could hasten the end of her honeymoon with the voters.

She is also dependent on the central government to bail West Bengal out of a debt crisis. Together, those factors offer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a chance to out-maneuver someone who, despite being a coalition ally, has stood doggedly in the way of much-needed economic reform.

In the past year, India’s stellar economic growth has slowed and its current account and budget deficits have ballooned. But the central government’s attempts to introduce policies it says would remedy the crisis have been blocked by the very coalition allies it relies on for survival, chief among them Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party.

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Kolkata’s red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain’s East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonise the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still.

For the past year, the sprawling building has been occupied by Mamata Banerjee, the diminutive chief minister of West Bengal who is perhaps the largest obstacle to economic reforms that would allow 21st-century traders free access to India’s consumer markets.

To supporters who affectionately call her “Didi”, or “Big Sister”, Banerjee is a hero who ended more than three decades of communist rule in West Bengal. They say she shelters farmers and shopkeepers from the harsh winds of globalisation, while guiding West Bengal towards its rightful place as an economic and cultural powerhouse and India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.

But after a series of erratic moves, including the arrest of an academic who forwarded a joke email about her to his friends, critics see her as an autocrat in the making. Weekly magazine India Today branded her the “Queen of Democrazy”.

Banerjee’s widely ridiculed antics and disappointment with her administration in West Bengal could hasten the end of her honeymoon with the voters.

She is also dependent on the central government to bail West Bengal out of a debt crisis. Together, those factors offer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a chance to out-manoeuvre someone who, despite being a coalition ally, has stood doggedly in the way of much-needed economic reform.

In the past year, India’s stellar economic growth has slowed and its current account and budget deficits have ballooned. But the central government’s attempts to introduce policies it says would remedy the crisis have been blocked by the very coalition allies it relies on for survival, chief among them Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party.

KOLKATA, India, May 13 (Reuters) – Kolkata’s red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain’s East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonise the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still.

For the past year, the sprawling building has been occupied by Mamata Banerjee, the diminutive chief minister of West Bengal state who is perhaps the largest obstacle to economic reforms that would allow 21st-century traders free access to India’s consumer markets.

To supporters who affectionately call her “Didi”, or “Big Sister”, Banerjee is a hero who ended more than three decades of communist rule in West Bengal. They say she shelters farmers and shopkeepers from the harsh winds of globalisation, while guiding West Bengal towards its rightful place as an economic and cultural powerhouse and India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.

But after a series of erratic moves, including the arrest of an academic who forwarded a joke email about her to his friends, critics see her as an autocrat in the making. Weekly magazine India Today branded her the “Queen of Democrazy”.

Banerjee’s widely ridiculed antics and disappointment with her administration in West Bengal could hasten the end of her honeymoon with the voters.

She is also dependent on the central government to bail West Bengal out of a debt crisis. Together, those factors offer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a chance to out-manoeuvre someone who, despite being a coalition ally, has stood doggedly in the way of much-needed economic reform.

In the past year, India’s stellar economic growth has slowed and its current account and budget deficits have ballooned. But the central government’s attempts to introduce policies it says would remedy the crisis have been blocked by the very coalition allies it relies on for survival, chief among them Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may press the case for India’s stalled policy to open its supermarket sector to foreign chains when she meets its most powerful critic: Mamata Banerjee, the fiery chief minister of West Bengal.

The two women are due to meet during Clinton’s three-day visit to India that starts on Sunday with a stopover in Banerjee’s home state. Indian officials in New Delhi said retail reform – an issue of enormous interest to U.S. and other foreign investors – could be discussed but did not elaborate. U.S. officials declined to comment on the meeting.

Listed in Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, Banerjee rose from a poor teacher’s family to oust the longest-serving democratically elected communist government from her state of 90 million last year.

Cheered as a pro-poor leader by her supporters and branded a knee-jerk populist by her detractors, Banerjee has stymied reforms at a time when India’s economic growth has slowed and investors have pummelled New Delhi’s apparent policy inertia.

Despite her alliance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, Banerjee has blocked major measures including railway fare increases and letting foreign retailers such as Wal-Mart (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Carrefour (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) into the Indian market.

Banerjee, who built her political movement championing the cause of the poor, has said New Delhi’s proposed reforms were needless attacks on people’s livelihoods.

“Maybe Clinton will try to use her persuasive powers to try to convince Mamata,” said D.H. Pai Panandiker, the head of the RPG Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank. “Manmohan Singh is not strong enough to convince her on anything.”

NEW DELHI, May 3 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may press the case for India’s stalled policy to open its supermarket sector to foreign chains when she meets its most powerful critic: Mamata Banerjee, the fiery chief minister of West Bengal.

The two women are due to meet during Clinton’s three-day visit to India that starts on Sunday with a stopover in Banerjee’s home state. Indian officials in New Delhi said retail reform – an issue of enormous interest to U.S. and other foreign investors – could be discussed but did not elaborate. U.S. officials declined to comment on the meeting.

Listed in Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, Banerjee rose from a poor teacher’s family to oust the longest-serving democratically elected communist government from her state of 90 million last year.

Cheered as a pro-poor leader by her supporters and branded a knee-jerk populist by her detractors, Banerjee has stymied reforms at a time when India’s economic growth has slowed and investors have pummelled New Delhi’s apparent policy inertia.

Despite her alliance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, Banerjee has blocked major measures including railway fare increases and letting foreign retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour into the Indian market.

Banerjee, who built her political movement championing the cause of the poor, has said New Delhi’s proposed reforms were needless attacks on people’s livelihoods.

“Maybe Clinton will try to use her persuasive powers to try to convince Mamata,” said D.H. Pai Panandiker, the head of the RPG Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank. “Manmohan Singh is not strong enough to convince her on anything.”

NEW DELHI, May 1 (Reuters) – India’s annual exports fell in March for the first time in four months as demand weakened in the United States and Europe, further clouding the outlook for the country’s balance of payments.

Exports fell 5.7 percent to $28.7 billion from the same period a year earlier, continuing a sharp slowdown in shipments in recent months that, combined with high imports of oil and gold, has sparked concern over the country’s swelling trade deficit.

The export decline was the first since November, when shipments dropped to $22.3 billion from $22.5 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The export drop is the latest bad news for India’s faltering economy. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating outlook for India to negative last week, reflecting investor concerns about hefty fiscal and current account deficits and political paralysis that has put a brake on economic reforms.

India beat the government’s target of about 20 percent export growth for the full fiscal year in 2011/12, which ended in March.

But Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar warned in January that exporters in Asia’s third-largest economy faced a “difficult year”, pointing to economic and financial weakness in the European Union, India’s largest trade partner.

“The contraction in exports is worrisome,” said Anubhuti Sahay, an economist at Standard Chartered bank in Mumbai.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s exports in March fell for the first time since the 2009 global financial crisis as demand weakened in the United States and Europe, further clouding the outlook for the country’s balance of payments.

Exports fell 5.7 percent to $28.7 billion from the same period a year earlier, continuing a sharp slowdown in shipments in recent months that, combined with high imports of oil and gold, has sparked concern over the country’s swelling trade deficit.

The export drop is the latest bad news for India’s faltering economy. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating outlook for India to negative last week, reflecting investor concerns about hefty fiscal and current account deficits and political paralysis that has put a brake on economic reforms.

India beat the government’s target of about 20 percent export growth for the full fiscal year in 2011/12, which ended in March.

But Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar warned in January that exporters in Asia’s third-largest economy faced a “difficult year”, pointing to economic and financial weakness in the European Union, India’s largest trade partner.

“The contraction in exports is worrisome,” said Anubhuti Sahay, an economist at Standard Chartered bank in Mumbai.

“We still need to see if the contraction is just a temporary blip or not. It is not surprising, though, because if you talk about the main trading partners in Europe, there is a slowdown there.”

NEW DELHI, May 1 (Reuters) – India’s exports in March fell for the first time since the 2009 global financial crisis as demand weakened in the United States and Europe, further clouding the outlook for the country’s balance of payments.

Exports fell 5.7 percent to $28.7 billion from the same period a year earlier, continuing a sharp slowdown in shipments in recent months that, combined with high imports of oil and gold, has sparked concern over the country’s swelling trade deficit.

The export drop is the latest bad news for India’s faltering economy. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating outlook for India to negative last week, reflecting investor concerns about hefty fiscal and current account deficits and political paralysis that has put a brake on economic reforms.

India beat the government’s target of about 20 percent export growth for the full fiscal year in 2011/12, which ended in March.

But Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar warned in January that exporters in Asia’s third-largest economy faced a “difficult year”, pointing to economic and financial weakness in the European Union, India’s largest trade partner.

“The contraction in exports is worrisome,” said Anubhuti Sahay, an economist at Standard Chartered bank in Mumbai.

“We still need to see if the contraction is just a temporary blip or not. It is not surprising, though, because if you talk about the main trading partners in Europe, there is a slowdown there.”