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Mint
14-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Retail, wholesale inflation eased sharply in June, signalling broad-based price cooling
New Delhi: Cooling prices offered a double dose of relief in June, with both retail and wholesale inflation easing sharply, signalling a broad-based tempering of cost pressures across the economy. Retail price inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at 2.1% in June, its slowest pace since January 2019, while wholesale price index-based inflation fell to a 21-month low in June, at -0.13%, marking the first negative reading since October 2023, according to provisional government data released on Monday. Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation stood at 2.82% in May, and 5.08% in June last year, data from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) showed. The wholesale price index (WPI), a proxy for producers' prices, stood at 0.39% in May, and 3.43% in June 2024, according to data from the ministry of commerce and industry. The government relied on the WPI as its main inflation measure until 2014, when it shifted to CPI to better capture household price pressures. A Mint poll of 20 economistshad projected CPI inflation to ease to 2.3% in June. The latest wholesale inflation data bettered expectations, with prices rising at less than the 0.52% projected by economists in a Reuters poll. June marks the fifth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years. The data comes just a month after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committeecut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The latest data bolsters the case for another rate cut to reinforce the growth momentum, economists said. Retail food prices slipped into deflation, falling 1.06% in June as the monsoon advanced across the country. The decline was sharper in urban areas than in rural. By contrast, food inflation had inched up 0.99% in May and surged 9.36% in June last year. 'CPI inflation for June cooled to a six-year low of 2.1% lead by moderating food prices and aided by the high base,' said Garima Kapoor, economist, Elara Capital. "We expect full-year CPI inflation to remain below RBI's full-year estimate of 3.7% and hence do not rule out the possibility of another rate cut post end of monsoon," Kapoor added. Retail inflation last dipped below 3% for six consecutive months between November 2018 and April 2019, a period during which the RBI also cut rates by 50 basis points. During June, a sharp dip was visible in the prices of meat, fish, spices, vegetables and pulses, as compared to the previous month. Prices of cereals, milk products, oil & fats, fruits, clothing, and fuel also fell, official data showed. However, the prices of eggs, footwear, health (expenses), and personal care and effects categories witnessed an increase in June compared with the previous month. At the state level, 12 of 22 major states reported inflation below the national average of 2.10%, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Economists expect food inflation to remain benign, supported by ample rainfall in the coming months, though some warned that the uneven spatial distribution of rain requires careful monitoring. "The decline is mainly due to decline in food inflation, which is also at 77-month low of –0.20%, led by continued decline in food items particularly vegetable, pulses and spices," said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, State Bank of India, in a research note. Ghosh warned that trade tariffs could lead to further deflation in domestic relative prices, especially in clothing, footwear, and household electronics, which together account for over 10% of the CPI basket. "Core inflation has remained sticky at the 4% mark. However, tariff-driven commodity price shocks can tend to lead to some upward bias in the core. Overall, we believe that inflation is likely to remain below RBI's target of 4% this year," said Aditi Gupta, economist at Bank of Baroda. "Climate-related risks and US tariff policy and its likely impact on global commodity prices remain key risks," she added. Core inflation is the rise in prices of goods and services, excluding food and fuel. June's decline in WPI inflation was driven largely by falling food prices, with softer trends seen across fruit, vegetables, pulses, cereals, spices, and edible oils. Food prices, which make up 24.38% of the index, decelerated by 0.26% annually in June, compared to a 1.72% rise in May. Cereal prices rose 1.44% year-on-year in June, easing from the 2.56% increase recorded in May. Meanwhile, vegetable prices contracted by 22.65%, a deeper drop than the 21.62% decline the previous month. Fruit prices rose 1.59%, much lower than May's 10.17% increase. Milk prices rose by 2.26% in June, down from 2.66% in the previous month. "Among the non-food items, the deflation in fuel and power also widened between these months (May and June), exerting downward pressure on the headline print," said Rahul Agrawal, senior economist, ICRA Ltd. "The seasonal sequential uptick in food prices has been relatively modest in July 2025 so far, which is expected to keep food print in the deflationary zone, unless there is an unusual surge in such prices in the remaining part of the month, especially for vegetables," he added. Overall, the rating agency expects the headline WPI to remain in the deflationary territory in July 2025 despite an unfavourable base, amid sustained annual deflation in food and crude oil prices. Meanwhile, manufactured product prices, making up nearly two-thirds of the WPI, rose 1.97% in June, slightly below May's 2.04% increase, according to the official data. Fuel and power prices contracted 2.65%, deepening from a 2.27% drop in May. Primary articles, including food, minerals, and crude oil, saw a sharper annual decline of 3.38%, compared with 2.02% a month earlier.
Mint
03-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Weak US dollar, low crude oil prices may fuel 8-10% rally in Nifty 50: Elara Capital
The US dollar has plunged to more than three year low and a prolonged phase of its weakness is setting the stage for a potential rally in Emerging Markets, including the Indian stock market. A softening dollar, easing oil prices, and India's robust domestic fundamentals can support further gains in the benchmark Nifty 50 during the second half of 2025, analysts said. The US Dollar Index (DXY) has declined 10% year-to-date (YTD) and currently stands around 96.70 — its lowest in over three years. Elara Capital expects the DXY to remain in the 95–99 range over the next two quarters, with an average of 100 for CY25, sharply lower than the 105 projected earlier this year. This signals a supportive global liquidity environment for risk assets, especially emerging markets. 'Historically, a falling DXY has amplified India's equity outperformance,' Elara Capital economist Garima Kapoor and strategist Saharsh Kuma said in a report. In each of the eight calendar years since 2000 where the DXY fell more than 5%, the Nifty 50 delivered positive returns, with a median gain of 34%. While the Nifty is up 7.5% YTD in 2025, Elara sees potential for an additional 8–10% upside if past patterns hold. 'DXY softness served as an amplifier — not the origin — of India's equity story. That is precisely what makes 2025 notable: India's internal growth levers are already active, and global risk appetite is once again turning supportive,' the report stated. The Nifty's performance typically strengthens when the dollar weakens and the correlation between the two turns negative. That is the case this year, with a –0.9 correlation observed. The report stresses that this inverse relationship reflects more than just currency dynamics — It's a signal of easing global financial conditions and renewed appetite for risk. What makes the current cycle unique is the simultaneous moderation in crude oil prices. This twin tailwind — weak USD and soft oil — has historically benefitted India more than other emerging markets. Onshore fundamentals are also aligning: India's inflation is under control, real rates remain positive, and the RBI has begun easing policy with a 50 bps rate cut and 100 bps CRR reduction. India's macro stability, light FII positioning, and earnings-led premium valuation further strengthen the case for equity upside. 'This is not a melt-up narrative. It is a measured rotation story, rooted in liquidity, validated by positioning, and underpinned by history,' Elara said, adding that mid and small-cap stocks may also participate as broader market sentiment improves. In essence, as the dollar stays soft, the Nifty 50 could be poised to catch up — offering a compelling risk-reward for investors looking at India within a global portfolio context. In this context, Elara believes selective high beta positioning is both tactically justified and strategically sound. Its preference is for large-cap names with average bull beta above 1.1x and midcaps above 1.3x, balancing participation with risk discipline. Stocks such as REC, Power Finance Corporation, Trent, and DLF, offer strong risk-reward in the large-cap space. Among midcaps, HUDCO, Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty, Prestige Estates, and Indian Hotels combine consistent bull beta exposure with earnings visibility and macro alignment, said the brokerage firm. These stocks fit well with its key themes of financial inclusion, real estate upcycle, and domestic discretionary recovery. Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Cision Canada
29-05-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
MinIO AIStor Sets New Standard for AI and Data-Intensive Workloads with Industry-First AWS S3 Express API Support
Enterprise object storage with built-in replication brings S3 Express API performance to the entire data lakehouse, at no extra cost REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 29, 2025 /CNW/ -- MinIO, the leader in high-performance object storage for the exabyte AI era, today announced AIStor support for Amazon's S3 Express API, a streamlined version of the general-purpose S3 API designed to deliver maximum performance for AI and data-intensive analytics workloads. MinIO AIStor is the first and only AI data storage platform to adopt Amazon's S3 Express API and enable organizations to put all of their analytical and AI data, not just a subset, in "express mode" at no extra cost. Introduced by AWS in 2023 and delivered via the Amazon S3 Express One Zone storage class, the Amazon S3 Express API has defined a new industry standard for high performance and developer-friendly AI and analytics storage, delivering 10x faster performance compared to the S3 Standard storage class. But, in AWS, the enhanced performance of AWS S3 Express One Zone comes at over five times the cost of S3 Standard to store data and doesn't come with data protection and replication capabilities. Consequently, to use it safely, customers must save a durable copy of their data in S3 standard and copy data that requires high speed access into S3 Express One Zone. With this release, MinIO is democratizing access to and use of this powerful API for all data processing needs by coupling its dramatic performance advantages with full active/passive, disaster recovery (DR), and batch replication support, all at no extra cost. Enterprises can continue leveraging the general purpose S3 API for raw source data requiring versioning and immutability before any processing, but can now leverage the high performance S3 Express API for all other downstream workloads and derived data sets, especially, but not limited to, high intensity data processing. This includes the majority of data lakehouse analytics with Apache Spark and Iceberg, AI data pre-processing, and AI model training and inference. "Until now, use of S3 Express has typically been reserved for data that requires high speed access at the expense of enterprise features like replication and lifecycle management, due to its cost premium over S3 Standard," said Garima Kapoor, co-founder and co-CEO, MinIO. "We're changing that because we believe it can and should become the standard API for all analytical data and AI workloads. With the AIStor S3 Express API, pricing remains the same so enterprises can now put all of their analytical and AI data, not just a subset, in 'express mode.' This is drawing tremendous excitement from customers." "In most lakehouse environments, versioning is already handled by table formats like Apache Iceberg, which provide atomic operations at the file or table level," said Sanjeev Mohan, principal analyst at SanjMo. "But when versioning is also enabled at the storage layer, it can create unnecessary duplication and complexity. Removing it from the storage layer simplifies the backend architecture, lowers CPU usage on storage servers, and helps prevent accidental storage growth and rising costs." AIStor's S3 Express API support comes at no extra cost, without any request charges for GETs, PUTs and LISTs, and with key data protection and replication capabilities so it can be used for all enterprise analytical and AI data. Key features and benefits of the AIStor S3 Express API include: Accelerated PUT and LIST operations: delivers up to 20% faster PUT operations, lowering CPU utilization, and up to 447% faster time-to-first-byte (TTFB) LIST operations relative to AIStor general purpose S3 API. This means faster training, faster analytics, and better infrastructure utilization. New atomic, exclusive append operations: enables direct and safe object modification, eliminating multi-step update workflows. For example, media-broadcasting applications which add new video segments to video files can do so as they are transcoded and immediately streamed to viewers. Full active/passive, disaster recovery (DR), and batch replication support: provides full performance benefits of the S3 Express API without loss of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR). Synchronous replication means no data loss in the event of an outage and asynchronous replication enables data protection across the globe. Streamlined and simplified API behavior: eliminates redundancies and implements simplifications and guardrails to improve the developer experience as well as application resiliency, predictability and security. As the first and only on-premises and private cloud AI storage platform to adopt Amazon's S3 Express API, MinIO is reinforcing its ongoing commitment to providing full and complete S3 API compatibility. To learn more about the AIStor S3 Express API, including the "how" and "why" behind specific features, please visit: To book a demo, please visit About MinIO MinIO is the leader in high-performance object storage for AI. With 2B+ Docker downloads 50k+ stars on GitHub, MinIO is used by more than half of the Fortune 500 to achieve performance at scale at a fraction of the cost compared to the public cloud providers. MinIO AIStor is uniquely designed to meet the flexibility and exascale requirements of AI, empowering organizations to fully capitalize on existing AI investments and address emerging infrastructure challenges while delivering continuous business value. Founded in November 2014 by industry visionaries AB Periasamy and Garima Kapoor, MinIO is the world's fastest growing object store.
Time of India
23-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Global tariff uncertainty may impact growth, but India set to weather the storm: Garima Kapoor
US' biggest challenge is likely to be in the near term how the movement on yields is. If the 10-year yield and the yields in US respond far too aggressively, then the financial conditions are likely to tighten very-very sharply. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads "I would still say everything else being equal, notwithstanding the correction in global economy that we anticipate, India should still grow with a handle of 6% to 6.2% and the assessment is fairly realistic," says Garima Kapoor In India's case the 6.2% that IMF has set out, I would say, is fairly realistic, although it is 30 basis point below what RBI as well as what the ministry had put out in terms of my assessment the estimates of both RBI and the Ministry of Finance should come down, get revised downwards, as we have more clarity on how the trade related uncertainties pan out. But given everything else and given that India's business cycle is turning with both government and RBI turning pro growth, the outlook for rate becoming more clear and with the more aggressive rate cut cycle, crude below 67-68 and dollar below 100, the tailwinds for Indian economy in terms of cyclical terms are far more than what they were six months I would still say everything else being equal, notwithstanding the correction in global economy that we anticipate, India should still grow with a handle of 6% to 6.2% and the assessment is fairly all depends on what kind of discussion and what kind of consultation both countries are able to bring on the table. But fair to assume that US' average tariff which used to be about 2-2.5% or below there is unlikely to stay there. Its average tariff is expected to come up, maybe in the handle of about 10 odd is unlikely to stay at 140% or 150% for China what it is, but 10% probably should be the new normal that the world economy should work with. Now, having said that issues between US and China do not just restrict to trade but they also restrict to a variety of other things including tech war and patents and otherwise security in my assessment the uncertainty phenomena which has gripped the world economy is likely to persist. While the second half can be anticipated better with expectation that there will be some bit of negotiation that is likely to happen and some bit of clampdown from the current race between US and China, but it is likely to be a new normal notwithstanding the clampdown because we have never seen this kind of average between US and China. So, in the near term, we are likely to probably address greater issues of uncertainty rather than issues relating to tariff related data whichever and whatever has come down till early part of April and till the end of March does not indicate that we are likely to hit recessionary situation immediately. And if this tariff related uncertainty is clamped down and there is much less uncertainty than what it was about a week or ten days ago, then things should look such as consumer confidence which came out with in month of March in US did indicate some bit of uncertainty relating to tariff, already reflecting in consumers' behaviour. However, remember we are entering this phase with relatively stronger corporate balance sheets. US' biggest challenge is likely to be in the near term how the movement on yields is. If the 10-year yield and the yields in US respond far too aggressively, then the financial conditions are likely to tighten very-very if the financial conditions tighten, then one should anticipate Federal Reserve to step in because if the tightened financial conditions persist for far too long, then US recession is more likely. But given the current macroeconomic backdrop and the in coming data, it does not seem like we are hitting recession immediately anytime soon, notwithstanding of course the one thing that you should watch out for as I mentioned is the movement of interest rates and the currency markets.
