New Delhi, January 1
The new year began on a cheerful note for the country’s exporting sector, as consignments turned positive after 13 months, growing by 18.2 per cent in November.

Exports in November 2009 increased to $13.19 billion from $11.16 billion a year ago, marking a trend reversal of decline that had set in since October 2008, due to widespread recession in key global markets.

Imports remained in the negative zone declining by 2.6 per cent to $22.88 billion, leading to a lower trade gap of $9.69 billion during the month against $12.32 billion in November 2008.

However, the import contraction in November was much lower than 15 per cent in October, signifying pick up in the economic activity.

For the April-November period, exports dropped by 22.3 per cent to $104.24 billion, much lower than 26 per cent gap up to October this fiscal. While exports have turned positive partly due to low base of last year, experts cautioned against complacency.

“Exporters need to keep their competitiveness both in terms of quality and prices and focus on market and product diversification,” RM Joshi of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade said.

India’s apex exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the November data indicates the adaptability of exporters to the changing global economy and the positive impact of the stimulus extended by the government. FIEO president A Sakthivel hopes that the government would continue with the stimulus, particularly interest subsidy for exports.

Despite the positive growth, the country’s overseas shipments in the current fiscal are likely to remain much lower than the $185 billion worth of shipments last year. Meanwhile, India’s oil imports also turned positive after 13 months and increased by 7.3 per cent to $6.38 billion in November, compared to $5.95 billion a year ago.

The non-oil imports contracted by 5.9 per cent to $16.5 billion from $17.5 billion. Trade gap during the first eight months of the current fiscal was $66.18 billion compared to $100.15 billion in the same period last year. — PTI

New Delhi, January 1
Indian economy would expand by 8 per cent during fiscal 2010-11 and return to the high growth trajectory of 9 per cent a year later, Prime Minister’s economic adviser C Rangarajan said today.

“The economy would grow between 7 and 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal, it would grow by 8 per cent in 2010-11 and in the year after that, growth would be 9 per cent,” he said.

The optimism of Rangarajan, chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) and former Governor of the Reserve Bank, is based on firm recovery in the global economy and normal monsoon.

“There is reason why I expect 8 per cent growth in the next fiscal. Agriculture would improve with normal monsoon and it would add 0.5-1 per cent in the GDP growth,” he said.

He added that the world economy and global trade would improve by fiscal 2011-12, and in that year, India would post 9 per cent growth.

According to Rajiv Kumar, an economist at city-based think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, growth would be about 6.5 to 7 per cent in 2009-10.

However, he, too, believes the country would accelerate to 9 per cent growth rate in 2011-12, provided the government brings in reforms, including allowing foreign investment in food retail.

Kumar expects food inflation to “persist for the time being” even if Rabi crop comes well as food availability has declined and the demand pressure is pushing up international food prices.

Food inflation stood 19.83 per cent in the third week of December after easing a bit in the previous week. — PTI 

New Delhi, January 1
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has lost an oilfield in Algeria to a consortium led by a Chinese oil firm. ONGC teamed up with Turkish Petroleum Corp (TPAO) and UAE’s Dana Gas to bid for the hotly contested Hassi Bir Rekaiz acreage in Algeria’s latest licensing round, sources said.

It, however, lost the prized property to a consortium of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Thailand’s PTTEP. Spain’s Cepsa and Russia’s Gazprom were the other bidders for the acreage. Hassi Bir Rekaiz in the Berkine Basin was relinquished by Australia’s BHP Billiton after a 2005 award.

Algeria awarded three permits in its bid round for 10 exploration areas that closed on December 22, they said.

Last month, ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the state-run firm, had lost a bid for the Halfaya oilfield in Iraq’s second post-war bid round, to a consortium of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Petronas Cargali Sdn Bhd of Malaysia and France's Total SA, sources said.

France’s Total with Portugal's Partex walked away with potentially the biggest prize in the tender, the southerly Ahnet field, which Total says holds some 500 billion cubic meters (17.65 trillion cubic feet) of gas initially in place. — PTI 

New Delhi, January 1
The sales of General Motors India has more than doubled to 8,258 units in December 2009, making it the highest-ever monthly sales in the 13 years of its operations in India.

The company sold 4,147 units of hatchback Chevrolet Spark, 616 units of newly launched sedan Cruze and 859 units of the latest compact car Chevrolet Beat in December 2009.

It also sold 493 units of premium hatchback Aveo U-Va, 374 units of entry-level sedan Aveo, 168 units of mid-sized sedan Chevrolet Optra, 1,519 units of the multi-utility vehicle Chevrolet Tavera, and 82 units of the SUV Chevrolet Captiva.

Commenting on the company’s sales performance, GM India vice-president, P Balendran said: “Increase in distribution network, customer acceptance of our value proposition like Chevrolet Cashless Ownership offer on Spark and our brand promise in terms of quality, performance and other product attributes are the reasons for the consistent growth.”

Mumbai, January 1
A friendlier tax regime, more retail investor participation, low interest rates and inflation, and speedy government disinvestment programme -- these are but some of the things that Dalal Street wishes come true in 2010.

The target in 2010 should be to regain the all-time peak of 21,206.77 points (touched in January 2008), and even beyond, for the Sensex, which ended the year 2009, at 17,464.81 points, up 7,817.50 points (81 per cent) from the year-ago level.

In the process, the market saw the cumulative investors’ wealth nearly doubling in 2009, to over Rs 60,00,000 crore, as foreign investors parked their faith as well as money in the world’s second fastest growing economy.

Analysts believe that the market has potential to push investors’ wealth to Rs 1,00,00,000 crore, if conditions are conducive for a continued bull run.

“Today, India is a preferred destination for equity investors across the world as is evident from the FII and FDI inflows ($35 billion) into the market this year,” ICICI Securities chief Madhabi Puri Buch said.

Buch noted that the volatility index for the market has dropped to 20 points, from near 80 a year ago, and that it indicates growing confidence in the markets and thus strong flows would be expected to continue.

The market’s wishes from the new year include lower transaction costs, continued expansion from long-term capital gains tax and measures to keep inflation under check so that the low interest rate regime prevails.

Brokerage firm Bonanza Portfolio’s Avinash Gupta said the market was hoping for additional policy measures to promote risk taking, especially by domestic investors. “A substantial reduction in the cost of transaction to the investor such as securities transaction tax, stamp duty, exchange transaction charges, service tax, etc, would will help expanding the market in a big way,” he added. — PTI