Budget 2018-19

  The new figures firmly ensconced India’s position among the world’s worst-performing major economies, despite expansive government spending designed to rescue the thousands of small businesses China has come roaring back from the devastation of Covid-19, and the United States, Europe and Japan are finding their feet. But the hundreds of millions of laborers and shopkeepers who keep India’s economy running still can’t find relief. India’s economy  shrank 7.5 percent in the three months that ended in September compared with a year earlier, government figures showed on Friday. The data reflects the deepening of India’s severest recession since at least 1996, when the country first began publishing its gross domestic product numbers. The new figures firmly ensconced India’s position among the world’s worst-performing major economies, despite expansive government spending designed to rescue the thousands of small businesses severely battered by its long, hastily imposed lockdown....

  Five of the eight high-frequency indicators compiled by Bloomberg News gained last month, while two were unchanged and one deteriorated India’s economy showed signs of stabilizing in August with manufacturing and services gradually improving even as coronavirus cases escalated across the country. Five of the eight high-frequency indicators compiled by Bloomberg News gained last month, while two were unchanged and one deteriorated. That kept the needle on a dial measuring so-called animal spirits steady at 4 — a level arrived at by using the three-month weighted average to smooth out volatility in the single-month readings. A strong rebound is still a far way off though as a surge in virus cases continues to disrupt activity and has led many economists to downgrade their growth forecasts for the year. Business Activity Activity in India’s dominant services sector continued to pick up, with the main index rising to 41.8 in August from 34.2 in July. While that’s a marked improvement...