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R Krishnaswamy

Sustainability Issues in India’s Balance of Payments

Vol - XLVIII No. 18, May 04, 2013 | R Krishnaswamy and K Kanagasabapathy

The cover provided to the balance of payments all these years by invisible receipts and capital infl ows made the government lax about the widening merchandise trade defi cit. Now with the current account defi cit widening to dangerous levels, policy has shifted to wooing foreign capital at all costs and looking at options to control gold imports. The key to sustainability of the BOP lies in boosting manufactured exports and thereby containing the trade defi cit.

The Slow-down in Services

Vol - XLVII No. 37, September 15, 2012 | R Krishnaswamy

Too much is being made of the marginal acceleration in growth during the fi rst quarter (April-June) of 2012-13. What should worry us is the steady slowdown in services, which has now touched a new. Services have fuelled GDP growth in recent years, but they cannot indefi nitely sustain a growth acceleration nor can export demand by itself hold up services. The service sector depends on the industrial and agricultural sectors, where growth has slowed because of the decline in investment growth.

Pattern of Consumer Expenditure in India

Some Revelations
Vol - XLVII No. 36, September 08, 2012 | R Krishnaswamy

A first analysis of the summary results from the National Sample Survey Offi ce's 2011-12 consumer expenditure survey throws up some interesting results. The monthly per capita expenditure shows an accelerated growth across all deciles. However, expenditure inequality has widened in both rural and urban areas. A study of the "drought effect" in 2009-10 by using information from the 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12 surveys suggests that the impact of the drought on the rural poor may have been softened by government programmes, while the urban poor were less fortunate that year.