David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - India

    China's Inward Turn

    Thanks to a subscriber for this report from Citi which may be of interest. Here is a section:

    In some ways this represents an important generational change in the way China will interact with the rest of the world. As far as we know, the term “international circulation” originated in 1988 when a government researcher, Wang Jian, made the case that China should adopt an export-led growth strategy, making use of its huge surplus labor to plug the economy into the international manufacturing process. In that sense, the de-emphasis of international circulation is an important historical shift. In a People’s Daily article in November 2020, Vice Premier Liu He set out a number of objectives relating to the DCS including: (1) the priority of upgrading of China’s technological capacity, including an enhancement of China’s supply chain resilience (though referred to in this article as “optimizing the structure of supply”); (2) the need for finance to serve the needs of the real economy; and (3) the promotion of further urbanization. Any mention of external demand comes last

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    Revving Exports to US Keeps India in Race to Be Next China

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    “We have started to see green-shoots of this with India’s exports in FY22 reaching around $420 billion, far higher than earlier years,” Jain said. “This was driven by a combination of external as well as internal factors.”

    India also managed to surpass El Salvador to become one of the top 5 suppliers of cotton t-shirts to the US this year.

    The apparels sector, where India competes with nations like Bangladesh, saw an up-tick owing to multiple factors including a ban of all cotton products from China’s Xinjiang region over alleged ill-treatment of its ethnic Uighur Muslim minority, said Gautam Nair, managing director at Matrix Clothing Pvt., a medium-sized garment export firm. “The surge also further accentuated due to huge boom in buyers’ purchase and supply chain diversification.” 

    Medium- and large-export firms saw a jump of 30%-40% in their order books last fiscal year and the upswing would be more visible in the current financial year ending March 2023, Nair said. Matrix Clothing, which exports apparels to global brands including Superdry, Ralph Lauren, Timberland, and Napapijri, has seen orders climb by 45% last fiscal year compared to the pre-covid year.

    Still, there are hurdles to the growth of low-value added manufacturing in the form of non-labor costs, warn analysts.

    “The bigger problems are the legacy issues of contract enforcements, tax transparency etc.,” said Priyanka Kishore, an economist at Oxford Economics. “These do pose a challenge to India’s manufacturing ambitions and need to be addressed for the country to fully tap its potential as a manufacturing hub.”

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    India's GDP can grow to $40 trillion if working-age population gets employment: CII report

    This article from The Hindu.com may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    “The golden period of 30 years between 2020-50 where our working age population will bulge can be an important horizontal enabler to bolster growth, even as the developed world including China ages,” the report notes.

    The report adds that over the years, India has experienced rising literacy rates, but level of vocational training/skilling is low, which gets reflected in the high unemployment rate among the educated. “Closing the skill gaps of its qualified workforce will be critical, as India depends more on human capital than its peer countries that have a similar level of economic development,” it said, adding that skilling and reskilling require a coordinated response from the government, industry, academia even as COVID continues to cause structural changes to the workplace.

    “The reversal in India’s structural transformation back toward agriculture is a sign of fall back to subsistence employment. Enhanced safety nets through PM-KISAN and the MGNREGA will be critical investments needed to ensure that incomes of small and marginal farmers are protected and their basic needs are met… But manufacturing and services will still have to be the two key growth engines going forward,” it said.

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    India's Forex Reserves Fall to 15-Month Low as RBI Defends Rupee

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here it is in full:

    India’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to their lowest in 15 months as the central bank probably stepped up its intervention to support the rupee that is testing new lows amid foreign capital outflows.

    The reserves fell by $8.06 billion to $580.3 billion as of July 8, data released by the central bank showed Friday. This is the second straight week of decline and comes as the rupee nears the psychologically-important level of 80 per dollar.

    While most emerging markets are seeing a sell-off on the US Federal Reserve’s rate-hike outlook, the Indian currency has lost about 7% this year, staying in the middle of the regional pack where the South Korean won has weakened by over 10% and the Philippine peso has shed over 9.5%.

    A bigger import bill due to high commodity prices is also boosting demand for dollars, putting pressure on the local currency.

    Monetary authorities in Singapore and Philippines on Thursday responded to the situation by going for emergency tightening. Some economists in India are factoring in the possibility of an unscheduled announcement by the Reserve Bank of India too. The central bank, which is due to announce its rate decision Aug. 4, had surprised with an off-cycle move in May.

    At the current level, the reserves will cover less than 10 months of imports. Investors are worried that the drop in reserves leaves the rupee vulnerable to speculators, but even now these are much larger than they were during the taper tantrum of 2013, Bloomberg’s economist Abhishek Gupta wrote on Friday ahead of the data release. 

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    India's Real 10-Year Yield Turns Most Negative Since 2020

    This note from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here it is full:

    India’s faster-than-expected inflation print for April has pushed the pace of consumer-price rises above the benchmark bond yield by the most since 2020. The return of the negative real yield suggests the Indian debt may suffer a deeper selloff.

    India’s real policy rate -- the spread between the central bank’s main rate and inflation -- has been negative for several months, like almost all emerging markets (China, Brazil and Indonesia are exceptions). But the latest inflation data has turned the market-determined real bond yield negative too.

    India might just be paying the price for its hesitation to raise interest rates. The Reserve Bank surprised markets last week with a 40-bp hike, after previously saying it would stick with a dovish policy as consumption remained below pre-pandemic levels. It had hoped oil prices might come down, but crude prices remain above $100 a barrel and the nation’s consumer-price inflation is more broad-based, including items like clothing and footwear.

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    India's Surprise Rate Hike Spurs Aggressive Tightening Bets

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    The Reserve Bank of India stunned markets Wednesday with a 40-basis point rate increase and a move to suck out billions from the banking system. That was a remarkable U-turn from February, when it announced an ultra-dovish policy, highlighting a relaxed stance toward inflationary pressures at home and U.S. tightening abroad.

    “We believe the rate hike is a belated acknowledgment of the inflation risks and that policy has been behind the curve,” Nomura analysts Sonal Varma, Aurodeep Nandi and Nathan Sribalasundaram wrote in a note.

    Yields on the benchmark 10-year bond jumped as much as 30 basis points on Wednesday to 7.42%, the highest since 2019, while the shorter 4-year yield saw a nearly 50 basis point jump. Yields extended gains on Thursday. 

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    How Did That Happen?

    Thanks to a subscriber for this report by Bill Spitz for Diversified Trust which may be of interest. Here is a section:  

    As shown, the working age population in the U.S. is expected to be relatively flat whereas both Europe and China will likely experience a significant decline. The key point is that economic growth is equal to the sum of growth in the working age population and productivity growth. Therefore, unless China can stimulate significant productivity growth, it can expect a significant slowdown in economic growth. While not top of mind for most Americans, this likely slowdown has important implications for the U.S. First, slower economic growth may cause socio-political issues for the Chinese government which may further complicate already tense international relations. Second, a shrinking workforce in China will likely result in higher wages which may import inflation to the U.S. given our dependency on China for the manufacturing and assembly of so many types of goods. Third, recent supply constraints in the U.S. will likely continue on a sporadic basis. Finally, a maturing population in China will consume internally more of what it produces. This example is so fascinating because the unintended consequences of a forty year old policy decision are currently impacting the entire globe.

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    India Plans To Tap Smaller Russian Banks As Sanctions Hit Local Exporters' Payments

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    The Indian government is exploring ways to reach out to smaller Russian banks that have not been sanctioned, according to an official in the Ministry of Commerce. One of the routes being considered is via smaller Russian banks that are outside the ambit of sanctions, said the official, who isn't authorised to disclose details and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    An alternative method of setting up a rupee mechanism has also been discussed, the official said. In looking for a solution, India may look to a system it had established nearly a decade ago for payments to Iran. Caught in the regulatory crossfire, Indian exporters are also worried that their shipments might be left unattended at Russian ports with no insurance.

    "Earlier, we came to know that the Export Credit Guarantee Corp. of India has removed its umbrella insurance cover for Russian exports. Now, we hear there is going to be a case-by-case evaluation," said Rahul Singh, an exporter of engineering goods, including electrical machinery, to Russia.

    To complicate matters, large amounts of engineering goods have already been shipped, said Singh. He has now reached out to the government regarding this. "Even if we receive payments, there will be a significant delay.

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