Commodity prices News

India's inflation is likely to ease in the coming months, partly due to fall in commodity prices: Finance Ministry. India's annual retail inflation has remained above the central bank's tolerance limit of 2% to 6% since January. The finance ministry has also said that a global slowdown may dampen the country's exports businesses outlook.

The price of Brent crude has skyrocketed above $125 per barrel from $97 before the Russian invasion began. While this would benefit domestic primary steel makers and aluminium smelters because their realizations will rise, it would cascade negatively for the construction, real estate, and automobile sectors. For diamond polishers, continued disruption of trade can make roughs costlier, leading to a squeeze on their margins.

The projection is a tad lower than 7.4 percent growth estimated by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for next fiscal.

The agency also has stable outlooks for car-makers, and companies in the construction, cement, and textiles sectors, but a negative outlook on the real estate sector.

According to the Japanese financial services major, a moderation in WPI inflation in the coming months is likely owing to falling vegetable prices and favourable base effects.

The report said despite the wider current account deficit, financing is not a concern.

WPI inflation is expected to rise in the next three months and is likely to average around 4.4 percent in 2017, much higher than 2 percent in 2016, says a Nomura report.

Moody's on Wednesday said the stable outlook on Indian corporates over the next 12-18 months reflects the country's sustained economic growth.

 While favourable monsoon will be vital for rural recovery, the trend in commodity prices and recovery in construction activities also hold equal importance, domestic rating agency Icra said.

 Confidence among Indian businesses fell to a five month low in May, and with rising inflationary pressure, there is limited scope for the RBI to cut rates, says a survey.

Low commodity prices and better FDI inflows have reduced India's vulnerability to external shocks which is "credit positive" for India, Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday.

India's current account deficit is likely to narrow to 0.7 percent of the GDP in fiscal 2016 from 1.3 percent in FY15 largely owing to low commodity prices, a Nomura report said Wednesday.

India's industrial recovery process is likely to be gradual owing to external headwinds and weak private sector investment, still the country is expected to clock a GDP growth of 7.8 percent in the next fiscal, says a report by Nomura.  

India's current account deficit may narrow to 0.5 percent of GDP in 2016 from 0.7 percent in 2015 owing to lower commodity prices, particularly oil, says a report.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it broadly supports the direction of India's economic reforms undertaken by the government led by Prime MInister Narendra Modi.

The seized stocks will be released in retail markets within a week, which will further help cool down prices.

State-run miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has slashed iron ore prices by over 50 percent due to the week iron ore demand. Analysts see the prices softening further in the near-term

It said the turbulences in the world economy adds uncertainty to the Indian economy.

A continuing plunge in crude oil and other commodity prices in global markets offers one of the best and the lowest-cost means to choke the inflation fangs sustainably and India must take advantage of this scenario, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said Tuesday.

The government on Thursday said the price rise is limited to a few commodities like pulses and not all, and there is "wrong perception" that there is inflation in every food item.