The US Federal Reserve has kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 1.5% to 1.75%. The Committee feels that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labour market conditions, and inflation returning to the Committee's symmetric 2% objective.
As a result, most Asian currencies fell. The rupee fell 19 paise to 71.47 against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday.

The US Federal Reserve has kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 1.5% to 1.75%. The Committee feels that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labour market conditions, and inflation returning to the Committee's symmetric 2% objective. As a result, most Asian currencies fell. The rupee fell 19 paise to 71.47 against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday.

Sovereign wealth funds are likely to change their investment strategy for Indian infrastructure projects and are expected to use the direct investment route more in the near future, compared to the current trend of investing through funds or joint ventures. As per a report the 100% tax exemption announced for sovereign wealth funds for their investments in infrastructure in the Union Budget 2020, would help increase investments into affordable housing, logistics and warehousing.

As the real estate sector reels under a slowdown, a report by Anarock Realty Consultants brings some good news. The report says that major real estate companies listed on stock exchanges have recorded a steady growth in their revenue during the October-December quarter of the current fiscal&nbsp;year. Housing sales revenue of the top nine listed developers in the quarter stood at nearly ₹5,800 crore, up 4% sequentially and 2% over previous&nbsp;year.
&nbsp;

India's domestic air passenger traffic rose 2.20% in January 2020 on a year-on-year basis, official data showed. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), passengers ferried by domestic airlines during the month rose to 1.27 crore as against 1.25 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year. However, on a sequential basis, the January growth rate was marginally lower than the 2.56% increase in passenger traffic during December 2019.

The fiscal maths of the government will change significantly if it is able to recover ₹1.20 lakh crore through AGR dues, resulting in the fiscal deficit for the current financial year reducing to 3.5% of GDP, SBI&nbsp;said in a research report.
Recently in the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced&nbsp;to raise the deficit to 3.8% from 3.3% in current fiscal.

India&rsquo;s trade deficit widened to&nbsp;$15.2 billion in January as exports contracted for a sixth straight month while the decline in imports eased. That&rsquo;s the widest gap since June. The gap between exports and imports was $11.25 billion in December, as per the Commerce Ministry's data. Imports declined by 0.75% from a year ago to $41.4 billion, compared with an 8.8% drop in December, while exports fell 1.7% to $26 billion. Oil imports rose 15.3% from a year earlier, while gold imports fell 31.5%.

Credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service on Monday slashed India's growth forecast to 5.4% for 2020, from 6.6% projected earlier, on slower than expected economic recovery. In its update on Global Macro Outlook, Moody's said India's economy has decelerated rapidly over the last two years and expects economic recovery is likely to be shallow.&nbsp;The growth projections are based on calendar year and as per its estimates, India has clocked a GDP growth of 5% in 2019. Moody's said&nbsp;revival of domestic demand - both rural and urban, is key for economic momentum.

Sales growth of consumer durables like refrigerators, ACs and washing machines in 2019 was the best since demonetisation,&nbsp;as per the data released by market research firm,&nbsp;GfK India.
Volume sales in the overall consumer electronics and major domestic appliances market grew 9% year-on-year in 2019 against 1% in 2018 and 4% in 2017.
As per the data, refrigerator sales went up by 9% in 2019, washing machines by 12%, and air-conditioners by 25%.&nbsp;Smartphone sales growth in offline stores declined marginally from 10.9% in 2018 to 8.7% last year. However, online sale of&nbsp;smartphones&nbsp;grew at 45% last year.
Television sales declined 2% in 2019 due to a shift towards audio-visual consumption over smartphones.&nbsp;

Global rating agency S&amp;P on Thursday affirmed India&rsquo;s sovereign ratings at 'BBB-/A-3' with a stable outlook, saying that it expects GDP growth to recover over two-three years. It also said that India is experiencing a cyclical, rather than a structural, economic slowdown. The Reserve Bank of India last week projected the economy to expand by 6% during the next financial year.&nbsp;The economic survey, tabled in the Parliament last month, estimated the GDP growth during FY21 at 6-6.5%.

India, the world's largest milk-producing nation, has offered to partially open up its poultry and dairy markets in a bid to rebuild bonds during&nbsp;US President Donald Trump's first official visit&nbsp;to the country this month, Reuters reported on Friday. India has traditionally restricted dairy imports to protect the livelihoods of 80 million rural households. The US is India's second-largest trade partner after China.
India has offered to allow imports of US chicken legs, turkey and produce such as blueberries and cherries, Indian government sources said, and has offered to cut tariffs on chicken legs from 100% to 25%. Although, US negotiators want that tariff cut to 10%.

India urgently needs more ambitious structural and financial sector reform measures and a medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy due to the rising debt levels while ensuring a more accommodative fiscal stance in the budget, the IMF has said.
Responding to a question on the budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesperson Gerry Rice said the economic environment in India is weaker than what the organisation had forecast earlier.
The IMF in January lowered India's economic growth estimate for the current fiscal to 4.8%.

Over eighty years after it was set up, the Reserve Bank of India on Saturday decided to follow April-March fiscal year, and not the current July-June, as its accounting year to align with that of the central government.
Once implemented, the interim dividends and dividends will be aligned with government's fiscal year of April-March. RBI gives interim dividends in February and final pay-outs in August currently.

With questions being raised over the&nbsp;govt's disinvestment revenue&nbsp;targets, and whether&nbsp;the amount can be raised with the target lowered by 40%,&nbsp;Chief Economic Advisor K.V. Subramanian&nbsp;cleared the air.
Subramanian&nbsp;said, the government's ₹2.1 lakh crore sell-off target is achievable with half of this amount expected to be met through the spill-over deals of Air India, BPCL and Concor and the remaining ₹90,000 crore through just 6-7% stake dilution in state life insurer LIC.
The Finance Ministry doubled the disinvestment target from the current fiscal's original target of ₹1.05 lakh crore.&nbsp;The Chief Economic Advisor, however, has said the target is not insurmountable and can be achieved well within time.&nbsp;

Expectations are high as Donald Trump visits India later this month. The Confederation of Indian Industry said, that&nbsp;India Inc expects tangible outcomes from the US President's visit, including a bilateral 'mini' trade deal and higher investment commitments from American companies.&nbsp;Industry body&nbsp;Assocham says, trade negotiators from India and the US have been working hard to add value to the bilateral economic engagement.
India is demanding exemption from high duties imposed by the US on certain steel and aluminium products, resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under the Generalised System of Preferences. Reports suggest a&nbsp;CEOs round-table is also on the agenda, to facilitate a meeting between the US President and industry leaders.

The annual rate of inflation based on monthly Wholesale Price Index stood at 3.1% for January 2020 as compared to 2.59% for the previous month and&nbsp;2.76%&nbsp;during the corresponding month of the previous year, as per the data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
&nbsp;

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved changes in the 'Direct Tax&nbsp;Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020' to increase its scope to cover litigation&nbsp;pending in various&nbsp;debt recovery tribunals. The proposal was introduced by the Finance Minister&nbsp;in her budget speech and the bill will now to Parliament for approval. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar&nbsp;said that cases involving over ₹9 trillion of direct taxes are pending in various forums. He added that people must take advantage of the scheme to settle tax disputes&nbsp;before March 31, 2020 as they will be charged 10% more after the end of the current financial year.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the infusion of&nbsp;₹2,500 crore into three public-sector general insurance companies - Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance. Just like banks, the government will start recapitalisation of general insurance companies in tranches&nbsp;as and when required, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said in a media briefing. The government is infusing capital into these companies so that the solvency ratio becomes acceptable and it fulfils the criteria of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDAI),&nbsp;Javadekar said. Besides,&nbsp;₹6,950 crore will be infused in these three companies next year, according to the 2020-21 Budget document.

Even as many private economists are less optimistic about the Indian economy, Principal Economic Advisor,&nbsp;Sanjeev&nbsp;Sanyal&nbsp;told Reuters&nbsp;Indian economic growth is poised to bounce back.
The government has taken measures to prop up investments and consumer demand, the top government adviser said. Corporate tax reductions, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the banking sector reforms have helped and will help propel growth further, he added.&nbsp;Sanyal said economic growth was set to accelerate to 6% in the upcoming financial year.

The Budget proposals, along with the&nbsp;RBI's liquidity boosting measures and coupled with previously announced measures, are expected to bring the domestic economy on an improved growth path in fiscal 2020, Brickwork Ratings said on Tuesday.
The report cited improved IIP,&nbsp;core sector activities and the Manufacturing PMI&nbsp;which showed substantial rebound.&nbsp;It expects that additional measures by the RBI like incentivising banks for further monetary transmission of rates amongst others are likely to improve the credit flow.
&nbsp;

To counter criticism over the economic slowdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday stressed on foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and GST&nbsp;collection data&nbsp;to show that the Indian economy is stable.&nbsp;
Sitharaman&nbsp;said the country has attracted a net FDI of $24.4 billion in April-November 2019, as compared to $21.2 billion during the same period of 2018. She said the net FPI during the same period was $12.6 billion against $8.7 billion in the same period last year. She added that&nbsp;GST&nbsp;collection of ₹1.11 lakh&nbsp;crore&nbsp;in January was also an&nbsp;indicator of increased activity.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published draft framework for authorisation of a new pan India umbrella organization for retail payment systems. The central bank has invited comments on the draft framework from all stakeholders by February 25. At present, National Payments Corporation of India&nbsp;(NPCI) is the umbrella organisation for retail payments systems.

US Fed keeps policy rate unchanged

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