Latest news with #IMFWorldEconomicOutlook
Canada News.Net
03-08-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
"Economy is resilient": BJP leaders counter Rahul Gandhi's 'dead economy' post
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 3 (ANI): Union Minister Hardeep Puri and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the country's economy is 'strong, steady, resilient' and its growth story continues. These affirmations come after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a X post on Thursday echoed US President Donald Trump's view that the Indian economy was 'dead', and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Maharashtra Chief Minister attached the latest IMF World Economic Outlook report, wherein it projected India's growth in 2025 and 2026 at 6.4 per cent -- the highest among the fastest major economies. The IMF report pegged the US's growth at 1.9 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively. For China, the rates were pegged at 4.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively. Fadnavis attributed this projected economic growth to the 'visionary leadership' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'Under the visionary leadership of Hon PM Narendra Modi Ji, India continues its steady and resilient economic growth, earning global recognition among emerging market and developing economies,' he wrote on X. 'These projections place India among the top emerging market and developing economies with consistent performance over the years,' he added, referring to the latest IMF projections. 'This is the result of focused governance, structural reforms and unwavering commitment to a Viksit Bharat.' On similar lines, attaching the same IMF report, Union Minister Hardeep Puri also lauded the country's growth journey. 'India is at the forefront of the global economy! Despite uncertainties prevailing worldwide, India will remain the fastest-growing economy. These figures are a strong response to those who lack faith in India's capabilities. This pace indicates that India will soon further strengthen its position among the world's leading economic powers,' Minister Puri wrote on X, in Hindi. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had also earlier this week shared the same IMF report to affirm that India's economy was set to 'grow as a robust economy and is poised to be the fastest growing emerging market in 2025 and 2026 as well.' In September 2022, India had surpassed the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world. India has made quite a turnaround, climbing the ladder of economic growth. This can be gauged from the fact that it was ranked 11th in 2013-14, and India has now positioned itself to become the fourth-largest economy soon. In 2013, India was placed in the league of 'Fragile 5' economies. The term 'Fragile 5' was coined by a Morgan Stanley analyst and refers to a set of five emerging countries, including India, whose economies were not doing well. The other four countries were Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey. To realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat' or a developed nation dream by 2047, India will need to achieve a growth rate of around 8 per cent at constant prices, on average, for about a decade or two, the Economic Survey document for 2024-25 tabled on January 31 asserted. On expected lines, the Indian economy grew by 6.5 per cent in real terms in the recently concluded financial year 2024-25. In 2023-24, India's GDP grew by an impressive 9.2 per cent, continuing to be the fastest-growing major economy. According to official data, the economy grew 8.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, in 2021-22 and 2022-23. (ANI)
Economic Times
03-08-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Hardeep Singh Puri & Fadnavis counter Rahul Gandhi's ‘dead economy' claim with IMF data
Union Minister Hardeep Puri and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the India's economy is "strong, steady, resilient" and its growth story continues. These statements come after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a X post on Thursday echoed US President Donald Trump's view that the Indian economy was "dead", and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Maharashtra Chief Minister attached the latest IMF World Economic Outlook report, wherein it projected India's growth in 2025 and 2026 at 6.4 per cent -- the highest among the fastest major IMF report pegged the US's growth at 1.9 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively. For China, the rates were pegged at 4.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively. — HardeepSPuri (@HardeepSPuri) Fadnavis attributed this projected economic growth to the "visionary leadership" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Under the visionary leadership of Hon PM Narendra Modi Ji, India continues its steady and resilient economic growth, earning global recognition among emerging market and developing economies," he wrote on X. "These projections place India among the top emerging market and developing economies with consistent performance over the years," he added, referring to the latest IMF projections. "This is the result of focused governance, structural reforms and unwavering commitment to a Viksit Bharat." On similar lines, attaching the same IMF report, Union Minister Hardeep Puri also lauded the country's growth journey. "India is at the forefront of the global economy! Despite uncertainties prevailing worldwide, India will remain the fastest-growing economy. These figures are a strong response to those who lack faith in India's capabilities. This pace indicates that India will soon further strengthen its position among the world's leading economic powers," Minister Puri wrote on X, in Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had also earlier this week shared the same IMF report to affirm that India's economy was set to "grow as a robust economy and is poised to be the fastest growing emerging market in 2025 and 2026 as well."In September 2022, India had surpassed the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the has made quite a turnaround, climbing the ladder of economic growth. This can be gauged from the fact that it was ranked 11th in 2013-14, and India has now positioned itself to become the fourth-largest economy 2013, India was placed in the league of 'Fragile 5' economies. The term 'Fragile 5' was coined by a Morgan Stanley analyst and refers to a set of five emerging countries, including India, whose economies were not doing well. The other four countries were Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat' or a developed nation dream by 2047, India will need to achieve a growth rate of around 8 per cent at constant prices, on average, for about a decade or two, the Economic Survey document for 2024-25 tabled on January 31 expected lines, the Indian economy grew by 6.5 per cent in real terms in the recently concluded financial year 2024-25. In 2023-24, India's GDP grew by an impressive 9.2 per cent, continuing to be the fastest-growing major to official data, the economy grew 8.7 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, in 2021-22 and 2022-23. (With agency inputs)
Scoop
17-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Social Crisis Deepening In New Zealand
Amid a sharp downturn gripping the New Zealand economy and escalating attacks by the far-right National Party-led government on the jobs and living standards of the working class, a bitter social crisis is unfolding. Growing discontent was highlighted last week with Statistics NZ revealing that a net 30,000 citizens quit New Zealand last year to move to Australia, the largest single year exodus since 2012. Tens of thousands more departed for other countries. In April and May 2025, more people left permanently than entered. The economy has fallen back into recessionary territory over the last three months. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was a meagre 0.8 percent in the March 2025 quarter on the back of a contraction of 1.1 percent over the full year. MacroBusiness in June described New Zealand as an 'economic basket case.' The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a key measure of forthcoming business activity, now ranks among the worst in the developed world. The working class is bearing the brunt of the downturn with a sharp drop in per capita national income. One statistician, posting on X under the handle MusicalChairs, noted that 'we are having a second winter of misery in the labour market. The year-on-year trend is basically stuck at 100 job losses per day. It's grim out there.' In the first quarter of 2025, unemployment hit 5.1 percent, up from 3.4 percent in 2023, with the number of people in full-time jobs falling by 45,000 in the three months. Jobseeker Support claims for unemployed 18–24-year-olds have increased by 41 percent over two years. The latest IMF World Economic Outlook predicts NZ will have the highest rate of joblessness of all Asia-Pacific countries until 2027, surpassing COVID-19 pandemic peaks. The percentage of people unemployed for between 6 months to 1year was 12.4 percent in 2023. It is now 23.9 percent, nearly double. Underemployment has risen by 26 percent in two years. Over a fifth of people working part-time, about 127,000, are struggling to find more work, despite looking for as long as five years in some cases. Wages have taken a sharp hit. According to the Labour Cost Index 48 percent of workers got a pay rise below inflation (i.e. less than 2 percent) last year. Annual increases in weekly earnings to June were a meagre $22 for workers in the lowest quartile, $42 in the median quartile and $69 in the upper quartile. The government is deliberately driving down wages for the lowest paid. The minimum wage increased in April by just 35 cents per hour to $23.50, a 1.5 percent increase, while inflation is presently running at 2.5 percent. In a brutal move, Finance Minister Nicola Willis expunged a requirement that government contractors pay at least the 'Living Wage,' currently $28.95 per hour, for low-paid cleaning, catering and security guard services. Living costs are soaring. A study by the Australian Edith Cowan University last year compared prices of a basket of supermarket staples across four countries including NZ, Australia, Ireland and the UK. New Zealand had by far the most expensive groceries, ranging from $A342 to $A409, while Australia's were second at between $A324 and $A332. Bills for rates, insurance, energy and transport have all skyrocketed. Household savings dropped by $392 million to negative $1.6 billion in the March 2025 quarter, as household spending increased more than disposable incomes. In a sign of growing desperation, record numbers of workers are making early withdrawals from their KiwiSaver retirement savings. In May, a monthly high of 9,420 people made withdrawals totaling $234,192,710 because of financial hardship, according to Inland Revenue. Housing is an acute issue. A recent television episode of 'The Hui,' a Māori-orientated journalism program, detailed an explosion of homelessness, not only in traditional working-class areas such as Rotorua and South Auckland, but in the more affluent suburbs of Auckland's North Shore. Matarora Smith, who runs a breakfast program for about 60 homeless people in south Auckland, bluntly told 'The Hui,' 'One of the street whānau (family) have passed away in South Auckland—froze to death.' Jan Rutledge, of De Paul House, which provides support services in north Auckland, had seen a noticeable increase in homelessness. 'We had a family come to us with two kids, mum and dad. They were staying in Glenfield Mall's car park,' she said, opposite the local Work and Income office. Rutledge said: 'Now that we've got no-cause evictions, a landlord can just come in and say, 'that's it.' We're seeing quite a lot of that.' Head of the Lifewise charity, Haehaetu Barrett, told 'The Hui' that homelessness is a 'national crisis.' The government has drastically reduced the number of families in emergency housing even as the demand for public rentals escalates. The public housing agency Kāinga Ora rejected 1,569 families' applications for emergency accommodation in the first three months of 2025 alone. As of May, 19,089 people were waiting for a Kāinga Ora state home. Almost half were Māori. On average, people were on the waitlist for 233 days. Barrett denied recent allegations by Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell and Police Minister Mark Mitchell that rough sleeping was a 'lifestyle choice' among homeless people who they alleged spent what little money they had on drugs. Barrett noted that the closing of emergency motel accommodation, which began under the previous Labour government, is forcing more families out of secure shelter. The last of the motels in Rotorua will be shut down by the end of the year, which Barrett said was 'way too quick.' She declared; 'They move them, but to where? And what support is in place?' Government promises to tackle the housing supply have come to nothing. In Wellington, Kāinga Ora is selling off two pieces of real estate it had pledged to turn into 280 homes. The agency has just 42 new units in the pipeline for the capital city, while the social housing register there exceeds 640 families. Kāinga Ora announced that it will halt over 200 housing developments nationwide and sell a fifth of the vacant land it owns, to ensure its housing projects 'make commercial sense.' In February, Housing Minister Chris Bishop unveiled a 'turnaround plan' for the embattled agency. It included selling off valuable state properties in wealthy areas, purportedly to fund homes in working class suburbs. The scheme excludes state tenants from living in 'desirable' suburbs while opening the door to privatisation. According to the March 2025 Quarterly Economic Monitor from Infometrics, general rental affordability is worsening as tenants spend more of their household income on rent. Average rent as a percentage of household income is running at 22.1 percent, up from 21.9 percent a year ago and well above the average 10-year low of 20.2 percent. Homeowners continue to suffer from high interest rates on their mortgages. On July 9 the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) 'paused' its 11-month rate-cutting programme and held the official cash rate (OCR) unchanged at 3.25 percent, down from 5.5 percent last August, declaring it needed 'more clarity' on inflation, the economy, and US trade policy. The cost-of-living crisis confronting the working class is underpinned by a sharp escalation in social inequality. The country's Rich List revealed last month that 119 individuals and families, including 18 billionaires, control a record $NZ102.1 billion, up from $95.55 billion in 2024 and equivalent to more than 40 percent of annual GDP. Their wealth derives almost entirely from parasitic activities such as financial investment and property speculation. There is also a vast class divide among Māori. While ordinary Māori, who make up 18 percent of the population, remain among the most oppressed sections of the working class, tribal capitalist businesses are flourishing. In March, a report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Te Puni Kōkiri showed the 'Māori economy' grew from $17 billion in 2018 to $32 billion in 2023. The powerful Tainui tribe, which settled land grievances with the government in 1995 for $170 million, now boasts a balance sheet of $1.9 billion.
Gulf Today
14-06-2025
- Business
- Gulf Today
Global economic growth outlook plunges to 2.3%, says World Bank
The World Bank lowered its 2025 global growth forecast to 2.3 per cent, down from 2.7 per cent previously expected. In its latest economic prospects report, the 189-country organisation attributed the downgrade to escalating trade tensions and policy uncertainty, noting that the US President Donald Trump's extensive tariffs have strained international ties and dampened economic outlooks worldwide. This revision marks the latest in a series of downgrades by international organisations. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund said that its next global growth forecast in July will take into account both positive and negative trade developments but declined to predict a tariff-driven GDP downgrade similar to that released by the World Bank this week. IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said that since the last release of the Fund's World Economic Outlook in April, there have been some positive developments that could support improved economic activity, including a major tariff reduction between the US and China and an initial trade deal between the US and Britain. 'So taken together such announcements combined with the April 9 pause on the high level of tariffs, these could support activity relative to the forecast that we had in April,' Kozack told a regular IMF news briefing. 'But nonetheless, we do have an outlook for the global economy that remains subject to heightened uncertainty, especially as trade negotiations continue.' The IMF also will take into account US President Donald Trump's added steel and aluminium tariffs, she said. These have now reached 50 per cent for all exporters. The World Bank slashed its 2025 global growth forecast by four-tenths of a percentage point from its January forecast to 2.3 per cent, saying that higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a 'significant headwind' for nearly all economies. The development lender cut forecasts for nearly 70 per cent of all economies - including the US, China and Europe, but the prior forecast came before Trump took office and imposed tariffs on nearly all trading partners. The IMF's steep April forecast cut did take into account Trump's initial tariff assault, reducing the 2025 global growth outlook by half a percentage point from its January forecast to 2.8 per cent, with a slower decline in inflation. Kozack said the next IMF World Economic Outlook update will be issued toward the end of July, but did not provide a specific date. Trump's 'reciprocal' tariff pause is currently scheduled to expire on July 8, with many countries seeking to negotiate tariff-reducing deals before then. And Trump has said there could be extensions of that deadline for countries engaged in good faith negotiations with the US Kozack said that more recent activity indicators reflect 'a complex economic landscape' with first quarter front-loading activity to beat tariffs, while there has been some diversion of trade and an unwinding of import activity in the second quarter. There also could be more trade deals or other developments to take into account. 'So all of this creates kind of a complicated picture for us, with some upside risk, some other developments, and we'll take all of these developments together into account as we update our forecast,' Kozack said. The International Monetary Fund said that its next global growth forecast in July will take into account both positive and negative trade developments but declined to predict a tariff-driven GDP downgrade similar to that released by the World Bank this week. IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said that since the last release of the Fund's World Economic Outlook in April, there have been some positive developments that could support improved economic activity, including a major tariff reduction between the US and China and an initial trade deal between the US and Britain. 'So taken together such announcements combined with the April 9 pause on the high level of tariffs, these could support activity relative to the forecast that we had in April,' Kozack told a regular IMF news briefing. 'But nonetheless, we do have an outlook for the global economy that remains subject to heightened uncertainty, especially as trade negotiations continue.' Meanwhile world stock markets fell on Friday, and oil prices surged, as Israel launched military strikes on Iran, sparking inflows into safe havens such as gold and the dollar. An escalation adds uncertainty to financial markets at a time of heightened pressure on the global economy from US President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policies. Brent crude oil prices were last up 7.25 per cent at $74.39 per barrel, having jumped as much as 14 per cent during Asian trading hours. They were set for their biggest one-day jump since 2022, when energy costs spiked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Gold, a safe haven in times of global uncertainty, rose 1.4 per cent to $3,432 per ounce, bringing it close to the record high of $3,500.05 from April. The rush to safety was matched by a dash out of risk assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.65 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.86 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9 per cent. Reuters
RTÉ News
13-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
IMF says July forecasts to take into account trade deals, uncertainty
The International Monetary Fund said its next global growth forecast in July will take into account both positive and negative trade developments but declined to predict a tariff-driven GDP downgrade similar to that released by the World Bank this week. IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said that since the last release of the Fund's World Economic Outlook in April, there have been some positive developments that could support improved economic activity, including a major tariff reduction between the US and China and an initial trade deal between the US and Britain. "So taken together such announcements combined with the April 9 pause on the high level of tariffs, these could support activity relative to the forecast that we had in April," Kozack told a regular IMF news briefing. "But nonetheless, we do have an outlook for the global economy that remains subject to heightened uncertainty, especially as trade negotiations continue." The IMF also will take into account US President Donald Trump's added steel and aluminum tariffs, she said. These have now reached 50% for all exporters. The World Bank earlier this week slashed its 2025 global growth forecast by four-tenths of a percentage point from its January forecast to 2.3%, saying that higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies. The development lender cut forecasts for nearly 70% of all economies - including the US, China and Europe, but the prior forecast came before Trump took office and imposed tariffs on nearly all trading partners. The IMF's steep April forecast cut did take into account Trump's initial tariff assault, reducing the 2025 global growth outlook by half a percentage point from its January forecast to 2.8%, with a slower decline in inflation. Kozack said the next IMF World Economic Outlook update will be issued toward the end of July, but did not provide a specific date. Trump's "reciprocal" tariff pause is currently scheduled to expire on July 8, with many countries seeking to negotiate tariff-reducing deals before then. Trump has said there could be extensions of that deadline for countries engaged in good faith negotiations with the US. Kozack said that more recent activity indicators reflect "a complex economic landscape" with first quarter front-loading activity to beat tariffs, while there has been some diversion of trade and an unwinding of import activity in the second quarter. There also could be more trade deals or other developments to take into account. "So all of this creates kind of a complicated picture for us, with some upside risk, some other developments, and we'll take all of these developments together into account as we update our forecast," Kozack said.
