SBI PO Mains Banking Awareness Quiz: 06th June

India Ratings & Research (A Fitch Group Company) has lowered the country’s growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7.3%, from the earlier projection of 7.5 %. The agency has listed three key reasons for lowering its projection.

The Netherlands has emerged as the third largest foreign direct investor in India during 2017-18, with investments pegged at about $2.67 billion across sectors. The Netherlands was also the second largest destination for foreign investment by Indian companies, after Singapore, with investments worth $12.8 billion in 2017.

The Asia-Pacific region s expected to grow at 5.7% in 2019. According to the bank’s Asian Development Outlook 2019 report released in April, developing Asia which comprises 45 nations ranging from China to Tuvalu is projected to grow by 5.7% in 2019. However, the growth outlook for developing Asia is expected to moderate to 5.6 % in 2020.

Takehiko Nakao is the President and Chairperson of the Asian Development Bank.

Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of the "Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975. Fitch Ratings is headquartered in New York, US.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation for April eased to 3.07%, from 3.62% in April 2018. The latest WPI print was also lower than 3.18% recorded in March this year. Build up inflation for the financial year so far was 0.75%, lower than 0.86% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

According to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry data, India’s overall exports, combining Merchandise and Services, in April 2019 is estimated to be around 44 billion US dollars with a positive growth of 1.34% over April 2018.

The Trump administration removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners, citing certain developments and steps being taken by New Delhi addressing some of its major concerns. Switzerland is the other nation that has been removed from the list. However, the list includes China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam among others.

The country’s median GDP is forecast at 7.10 percent for Financial Year 2020 and 7.20 percent for Financial Year 2021. The industry body FICCI’s economic outlook survey stated that the minimum and maximum growth estimate stood at 6.80 per 0cent and 7.3 percent for 2019-20.

Overseas investors pumped more than 9,000 crore rupees into the Indian capital markets in last month on expectations of more business-friendly measures.
According to the latest depositories data, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) infused around 7,920 crore rupees into equities and 1,111 crore rupees in the debt market during second to-31st of May, taking the cumulative investment to around 9,031 crore rupees. Prior to this, they had invested a net 16,093 crore rupees in April, 45,981 crore rupees in March and 11,182 crore rupees in February in the capital markets (both equity and debt).

India’s goods and services tax (GST) revenue collections crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for the third straight month in May to Rs 1,00,289 crore, despite the slowdown in the industrial activities. However, GST mop-up in May was lower than the all-time high of Rs 1.13 lakh crore in the month of April, highest ever since the indirect tax regime was rolled out on 01st July 2017.

Global efforts to impose a unified tax policy on Google, Facebook and other internet giants have cleared a major hurdle ahead of a G20 summit in Japan. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated that 129 countries had signed off on a road-map to grab a fairer tax share of the companies’ booming sales.

The World Bank retained its forecast of India’s growth rate at 7.5% for the current financial Year 2019/20. In its Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank also mentioned that growth rate is expected to remain the same for the next two fiscals. World Bank Headquarters in: Washington DC, USA, Established in: 1944, President: David Malpass.

Jose Angel Gurria is Secretary-General of the OECD.

The government has hiked the customs duty on wheat to 40% from 30% to curb imports and protect the domestic industry. The government wants to restrict overseas purchase so that domestic prices of wheat do not come under pressure as the country’s wheat output is expected to scale a record high. The country’s wheat production this season might cross 100 million tonnes an all-time high.