MACRO ECONOMIC NEWS

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Macro-Economic News 15 Jan 2021

 

Company incorporations grow 20% y-o-y during April-Dec 2020. Indian market-cap crossed its GDP for the first time in over a decade, while Fitch predicts the Indian economy to slow down to 6.5% in the medium term after an initial rebound. India plans to achieve 20% ethanol-blending with gasoline by 2025, five years ahead of its previous target. 

 

After a decline in CPI, WPI also declined in December to 1.22% compared to 1.55% in November 2020. However, Core Inflation (Inflation excluding volatile items such as food and fuel) remained very high, whereas automobile sales registered 14 percent growth in December. 

 

New US jobless claims accelerate to highest since August. Biden urges more than doubling minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan that includes a wave of new spending as more direct payments to households and an expansion of jobless benefits. 

 

Powell sought to stamp out talk of a premature reduction in the central bank’s massive bond-buying campaign that indicates that the central bank’s easy money policies will remain in place for the foreseeable future. 

 

ECB shifts in stimulus stance as policymakers differed over the scale to pull out of its current crisis with the latest pandemic lockdowns and a likely double-dip recession for the eurozone. Most economists expect that the bond-buying package will be fully used without rising interest rates for at least another two years. The German economy stagnated at the end of last year, probably avoiding a double-dip recession engulfing the euro area.

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