Synopsis Exporters and freight agencies expressed concerns over high terminal handling charges at ports and low usage of dry ports, which contribute to logistics costs. They discussed these issues with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal. India is aiming for $800 billion in goods and services exports by scale 2025, up from $778 billion in the previous scale year. New Delhi: Exporters and freight agencies Tuesday raised the issue of high terminal handling charges at ports and low usage of dry ports or inland container depots, which add to the overall logistics costs. At a meeting with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, they said the fee charged by shipping terminals to store and position containers before they are loaded on a vessel is higher by ₹10,000-15,000 per consignment than what ports charge. "It was a stock-taking meeting on logistics and shipping issues. The government is looking at reducing logistics costs everywhere," said an official. India aims to cross $800 billion of goods and services exports in scale 2025 as against $778 billion in the last scale year.
Source: Economic Times
After world-beating economic growth last year, India's policymakers are scrambling to head off a sharp slowdown as worsening global conditions and domestic confidence wipe out a recent stock market rally. On Tuesday, Asia's third-largest economy forecast annual growth of 6.4 per cent in the fiscal year ending in March, the slowest in four years and below the government's initial projections, weighed by weaker investment and manufacturing. The downgrade follows disappointing economic indicators and a slowdown in corporate earnings in the second half of 2024, which have forced investors to rethink the country's earlier outperformance and cast doubts over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious economic targets.
The fresh worries are heightening calls for authorities to lift sentiment by loosening monetary settings and slowing the pace of fiscal tightening, especially as Donald Trump's looming second presidency throws more uncertainty over the global trade outlook. "You have to revive the animal spirit, and you also have to ensure that consumption picks up. It's not that easy," Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, said, adding India could expand its fiscal balance sheet or cut interest rates. Such calls come amid a flurry of meetings by Indian policymakers with businesses growing increasingly worried about faltering demand. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a series of meetings in December with industry and economists, customary ahead of India's annual budget, which is due Feb. 1. Some of the measures proposed in those talks to boost growth include putting more money into the hands of consumers and cutting taxes and tariffs, according to demands by trade and industry associations.
Growing concerns
The worries about India's economy knocked 12 per cent off the benchmark Nifty 50 index from late September to November. It clawed back those losses to end 2024 up 8.7 per cent, a decent gain but well off the previous year's 20 per cent surge. As confidence wanes, the political urge to stimulate growth appears to be broadening.
India's monthly economic report published last month said the central bank's tight monetary policy was partly responsible for the hit to demand. Modi has made some high-profile changes recently that are expected to lift economic growth as a priority over price stability. In a surprise move in December, Modi appointed Sanjay Malhotra as the new central governor, replacing Shaktikanta Das, a trusted bureaucrat who was widely expected to get another one to two-year term as bank chief after having completed six years at the bank. The appointment of Malhotra, who recently said the central bank will strive to support a higher growth path for the Indian economy, came immediately after the September quarter growth slowed much more than expected to 5.4 per cent. During the pandemic, Modi sought to keep the economy growing by raising infrastructure spending and limiting wasteful expenditure to keep government finances in good shape. That lifted headline GDP growth but has not supported wages or helped consumption sustain an annual expansion of more than 7 per cent over the past three years. While India's economy may still outperform globally, the question is whether it can maintain 6.5 per cent-7.5 per cent growth or slow to 5 per cent-6 per cent, said Sanjay Kathuria, visiting senior fellow at Centre for Social and Economic Progress. Arora said the country currently is in a "bit of a limbo" where individuals are not spending. She expects this to continue if employment does not improve and wage growth remains weak. Reuters reported last month the government plans to cut taxes for some individuals and is preparing to offer tariff cuts on some farm and other goods mainly imported from the U.S., to clinch a deal with Trump. Economists say the government will have to slow some of its fiscal tightening to support growth with the success of such measure’s dependent on the extent of the cuts. With regards to trade, analysts say India needs a credible plan to fight Trump's tariff wars. If China remains the main target of Trump's tariffs, that could present an opportunity for India to boost its trade profile, although it would also need to let the rupee fall further to make its exports more competitive, economists said. India needs to "seriously implement tariff rationalisation to help embed itself more deeply into global value chains," Kathuria, also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, said. This could include tariff cuts aimed at pre-emptively heading off punitive levies from a Trump White House.
"India should announce some proactive measures for U.S. suo-moto to bring concessions for the U.S. rather than waiting for the new administration to announce their steps," said Sachin Chaturvedi, head of the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Countries.
Source: Business Standard
The Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) has applauded the decision of the Government for extending the imposition of Minimum Import Price (MIP) of US $ 3.50 per Kg on 13 specific HSN codes of synthetic knitted fabrics. Sidharth Khanna , President of NITMA, extends his deep admiration and sincerest gratitude to the Minister for Textiles, Giriraj Singh and the Minister for Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal along with the officials from both the respective Ministries for this decision.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) set a minimum import price (MIP) of US $ 3.50 per kilogramme for 13 HS codes of synthetic knitted fabrics, with effect from 1st January 2025 to 31st March 2025. SEZs, EOUs, and holders of advance authorisation are exempt from this requirement, provided that imported inputs are not sold into DTAs.
Khanna also disclosed that, in spite of the Governments’ admirable and unrelenting efforts to stop these underpriced imports, the most recent data (up to 24th October) shows that import quantities have skyrocketed, revealing that under-invoicing and other illegal activities are still common to get around these restrictions.
The introduction of the Minimum Import Price (MIP) has resulted in a significant rise in the overall number of imports under Chapter 60, rather than a decrease, according to an analysis of the most recent import data up to October 2024.
In addition, the most recent import data indicates an increase in three additional HS codes in addition to the 13 HS codes covered by MIP. The average monthly imports for these three HS codes increased significantly from 1.31 million kilogrammes (during April–June 23) to 7.52 million kilogrammes (during 24th October), a 600 per cent increase.
This suggests that importers are evading HS codes, which makes the existing strategy of applying Minimum Import Prices (MIP) to certain HS codes ineffectual. Which new HS codes importers are using will be shown in the November and December data.
NITMA has also requested the Government to widen the scope of MIP of US $ 3.50/ Kg on all HS codes falling under Chapter 60 and to include this provision in the budget to avoid the need for multiple notifications at frequent intervals.
Source: Apparel Resource
Textiles minister Giriraj Singh had said in 2024 that the government was considering extending the PLI scheme for textiles to garments to boost manufacturing and exports. The Centre may have put on hold a proposal to expand to garments the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles, as looks to priorities utilisation in the existing plans, a government official has told Moneycontrol. The PLI scheme for textiles has been one of the laggards among the 14 sectors covered under the flagship scheme aimed at encouraging manufacturing to reduce import dependence, the official said. “There is no consensus on this. The thinking is to not tweak the existing scheme too much and focus on a pick-up in utilisation. If we keep tweaking or expanding schemes, we may get a flurry of requests for similar PLI schemes and it should not be repeated in every sector,” this official said, requesting not to be identified. In 2024, textiles minister Giriraj Singh said the government was considering extending the textile PLI to garments to boost domestic manufacturing and exports. The Centre in 2021 approved a PLI scheme for textiles with a budgetary outlay of Rs 10,683 crore for a five-year period to boost production of man-made fibre (MMF) apparel and MMF fabrics among others. It was estimated that over five years, the output- linked plan for the sector would lead to fresh investments of more than Rs 19,000 crore and create more than 7.5 lakh jobs. So far, the Centre has approved 74 applicants under the PLI scheme for textiles with an estimated incentive of Rs 7,086 crore. Unveiled in 2020 to promote local production, the PLI scheme for 14 key sectors has an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. The incentives disbursed, however, stood at just Rs 9,721 crore till FY 2023-24, official data shows. Automobiles, large-scale electronics, textiles, white goods, specialty steel, and solar photovoltaic modules are among the 14 sectors covered by PLI scheme. In 2023-24, the PLI schemes spurred investments worth Rs 1.46 lakh crore, production or sales of Rs 12.50 lakh crore, exports worth Rs 4 lakh crore (US$48 billion) and direct and indirect employment for 9.5 lakh individuals. The scheme has had a mixed run, so far. While sectors like large-scale electronics manufacturing have seen unparalleled success, others such as steel and textiles are laggards.
Source: Money Control
The rupee fell 5 paise to settle at 85.73 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday, as higher crude oil prices and outflow of foreign funds continued to weigh on the local unit. Forex traders said the rupee pared some of its intraday losses as the American currency retreated from its elevated levels. Moreover, the recovery in the domestic equity market also aided sentiments. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 85.77, touched the day's peak of 85.65 and hit an intraday low of 85.80 against the greenback. The unit settled at 85.73 (provisional) against the dollar, registering a fall of 5 paise from its previous close. On Monday, the rupee settled 11 paise higher at 85.68 against the dollar. During intraday, the unit had hit the lowest-ever level of 85.84 against the American currency.
"We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias on FII outflows and underlying strength in the US dollar amid expectations of no rate cut by Fed in January. However, any extended recovery in the domestic markets may support rupee at lower levels.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.30 per cent lower at 107.92, amid disappointing US services PMI and factory orders data, while President-elect Donal Trump dismissed rumours over stringent trade tariffs. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.42 per cent to $76.62 per barrel in futures trade. In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 234.12 points, or 0.30 per cent, to settle at 78,199.11 points, while the Nifty climbed 91.85 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 23,707.90 points. Both the indices had crashed 1.60 per cent on Monday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded Rs 2,575.06 crore in the capital markets on a net basis on Monday, according to exchange data. On the domestic macroeconomic front, India's services sector growth touched a four-month high in December, supported by new business inflows on strong demand conditions and easing inflationary pressures, a monthly survey showed on Monday.
The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index, rose from 58.4 in November to 59.3 in December, highlighting the strongest rate of expansion in four months. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continued with its 2024 buying streak, adding a further 8 tonnes to its gold reserves in November. This lifted the year-to-date buying to 73 tonnes and total gold holdings to 876 tonnes, maintaining its position as the second largest buyer in 2024, after Poland.
Source: Business Standard
Vietnam's total trade was worth $786.29 billion last year—up by 15.4 per cent year on year (YoY), with a trade surplus of $24.77 billion, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO). The December trade figure was $70.53 billion—up by 6.2 per cent month on month (MoM) and 15.9 per cent YoY. The country's exports expanded by 14.3 per cent YoY to $405.53 billion last year, while imports grew by 16.7 per cent YoY to $380.76 billion, domestic media outlets reported. Of the total export value, the domestic sector contributed $114.59 billion—a 19.8-per cent YoY increase, accounting for 28.3 per cent. The foreign-invested sector, including crude oil, generated $290.94 billion in exports—up by 12.3 per cent YoY and comprising 71.7 per cent. Of the total import value, the domestic sector went up by 19.5 per cent to $140.11 billion, and the foreign-invested sector recorded $240.65 billion—a 15.1-per cent increase.
Source: Fibre2fashion
The Dutch economy showed mixed indicators in November, as consumer sentiment continued to decline, while producer confidence slightly improved. The Business Cycle Tracer for November showed a more negative economic picture compared to October, with 11 out of 13 indicators performing below their long-term trend, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Despite these challenges, there were some positive developments, including an increase in household consumption, exports, and investments.
In terms of consumer confidence, sentiment in December was more negative than in November, falling below the long-term 20-year average, while producer confidence showed a slight improvement, increasing from -1.8 in November to -1.6 in December. Despite the shift in sentiment, both consumer and producer confidence remained below the long-term average. Producer confidence, while improving slightly, was still below the 20-year average of -1.3. In October 2024, household spending rose by 0.4 per cent year-on-year, supported by higher expenditures on goods and services. Exports also saw an uptick, rising by 1.7 per cent. Meanwhile, investments in tangible fixed assets were up by 5.2 per cent year-on-year, CBS said in a press release.
The manufacturing sector, however, continued to struggle, with output down by 2.5 per cent compared to October 2023. This marked the 16th consecutive month of decline. The output also fell by 0.6 per cent compared to September 2024, signalling persistent weaknesses in the sector. The labour market showed mixed signs, with fewer hours worked and fewer job vacancies. Unemployment remained unchanged at 3.7 per cent of the workforce in November. Overall, despite an uptick in GDP growth of 0.8 per cent in Q3 2024, economic momentum remains fragile.
Source: Fibre2fashion
