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Slamming the Modi government, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said prioritising crony businesses over play-fair ones leads to weakened manufacturing sector, depreciating currency, record high trade deficits, high interest rates, falling consumption and soaring inflation. Tagging a media report which said that trade deficit and imports are at an all-time high, Gandhi hit out at the government. "What happens when a government prioritises crony businesses over play-fair businesses?" Gandhi said. "Result: Weakened manufacturing sector, depreciating currency, record high trade deficits, high interest rates, falling consumption and soaring inflation," he said in a post on X. After recording double-digit growth in October, India's exports in November contracted by 4.85 per cent year-on-year to USD 32.11 billion, while the trade deficit widened to an all-time high of USD 37.84 billion due to record surge in gold imports. According to the commerce ministry d
India's current account surplus in the fourth quarter of the 2023-24 fiscal was aided by narrowing of the merchandise trade deficit, an increase in remittances and a surplus in services trade, according to a CRISIL report released on Wednesday. The country's current account recorded a surplus of USD 5.7 billion, which is 0.6 per cent of the GDP, in the fourth quarter of the last financial year. It was in deficit of USD 8.7 billion, equivalent to one per cent of GDP, in the third quarter of the 2023-24 fiscal, the report said. In the corresponding fourth quarter of 2022-23, the country's current account was also in deficit of USD 1.3 billion, which was 0.2 per cent of the GDP. "The improvement in current account balance to 0.6 per cent of GDP surplus in Q4 fiscal 2024, from a deficit of 0.2 per cent of GDP a year ago reflects improvement on all three fronts i.e. merchandise trade deficit narrowed, services trade surplus increased and remittances rose," the CRISIL report said. Finan
Steps such as adoption of international standards, using risk-based regulations, and modern infrastructure development will help further improve quality of goods manufactured and exported from India, economic think tank GTRI said on Friday. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) also recommended support to small and medium enterprises, avoiding quality control orders becoming non-tariff barriers, regulatory impact assessment, developing globally acceptable standards and inking mutual recognition pacts with trading partners to strengthen India's quality systems. These suggestions come at a time when India is on the fast track to issue Quality Control Orders (QCOs) and Compulsory Registration Orders (CROs) with a view to curb imports of sub-standard goods from countries like China, boost domestic manufacturing and push exports of high-quality goods from the country. GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said that to fully capitalize on these initiatives, it is crucial to comprehensively .
/ -- A report from People's Daily: As one steps into the fully automated container terminal at Rizhao Port in east China's Shandong province, a remarkable sight unfolds - remote-controlled quay cranes precisely grabbing and releasing containers, automated rail-mounted cranes and unmanned container trucks working in coordination... Human operators are scarcely visible at the terminal, yet operations run smoothly and efficiently. As the first side-loading and parallel-layout fully automated container terminal in the world, the terminal employs China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and 5G technology, and has launched six domestically developed and industry-first innovative technologies, including a scheduling system for autonomous container trucks. The pioneering facility has made remarkable progress since it was put into use on Oct. 9, 2021 - its single-crane operational efficiency improved by 50 percent and overall costs lowered by 70 percent. Besides, the single-crane handling .
Japan recorded a trade deficit for the third straight fiscal year as the costs of energy and other imports rose and the yen remained weak. The deficit was 5.89 trillion yen (USD 38 billion) for the fiscal year that ended in March, according to Finance Ministry data released on Wednesday. The biggest trade deficits were in the Middle East, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Australia and Indonesia. Japan had a trade surplus with the US and some European countries. Annual exports to China slipped slightly, declining for the first time in four years, although the latest monthly data show exports to China recovering, growing 12 per cent from the previous year. Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING Economics, said strong technology-related exports were behind the jump in exports to China, while noting exports were also growing to other regions. We think exports will be the main engine for growth in the coming months, he said in a ...