Statistics as on 06.11.2017 | ||
Description | Currency | Values |
USD vs INR | 64.61 | |
Euro vs INR | 74.81 | |
Euro vs USD | 1.161 | |
Gold / 10 gram | INR | 29,353 |
Sensex | 33,731 | |
Crude Oil WTI (NYMEX) | USD | 57.35 |
Oil is in a tailspin especially after the high profile arrests in Saudi Arabia last Saturday night. Crude Oil WTI at NYMEX is trading at a 2 year high of $ 57.35, Expectations are that oil prices will move up and some analysis say it will get to see $ 62 soon. Brent crude already is above $ 62 and OPEC is already thinking about $70 a barrel.
India is bracing up for trouble as oil prices increased by 10% already in 2017. With oil prices moving up there is going to be pressure on pricing & taxes as Government will be forced to reduce taxes to bring down impact of global oil price increase to the common consumer & the oil dependent industry especially the transport sector. This will exert pressure on fiscal & monetary policy of the government especially at a time when the government has announced a Rs.7 lakh crore stimulus to bail out banks and build infrastructure. At a time when GDP growth is below expectations at 5.7% increase in global oil prices will trigger inflation (estimated WPI inflation to go up by 1.3% for every $10 increase in oil per barrel), reduce forex reserves exert pressure on Rupee and more importantly increase deficit as tax reduction will reduce tax revenues. Already difficulties due to demonetisation & GST are plaguing the economy and oil price rise is becoming a new headache for the Government.
The next victim of higher price increase will be the INR which is currently stable around 64 to the USD, will be under severe pressure as every $1 increase in oil price will increase imports bill by $ 1.2 billion annually. Already forex reserves for the past 2 weeks are falling there will be further pressure on reserves as RBI will sell more dollars to keep INR rates stable in the short and medium term.
Oil price increase will tend to suck out liquidity in the market and there predictions that stock market will reverse its growth and will be under strain soon, hurting industrial growth which is already hampered with slow growth.
Overall a big challenge faces India economy smart fiscal & monetary policy initiatives are a need of the day today to make best of this challenge
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