The bouncing GDP.

"Beating the expectations of analysts, India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 7.8% on an annual basis in the last quarter (Q4) of the FY24." The growth of Q3 has been revised upwards from 8.4% to 8.6%, "Therefore, the growth in the previous three quarters now stand at 8.2% in Q1, 8.1% in Q2 and 8.6% in Q3, on an annual basis." "The GDP growth for FY24 has also been revised upwards to 8.2% from the second advanced estimate of 7.6%." ET. Also, "The Centre contained its fiscal deficit at 5.6% of GDP in FY24, beating the revised estimate of 5.8% on the back of improved resource mop-up and curtailed revenue expenditure." ET. This is because the Reserve Bank (RBI) has decided to transfer Rs 2.1 trillion as profits from a 17% increase in its income and a 56% fall in its expenses. ET. "The Centre collected Rs 1.73 lakh crore (Rs 1.73 trillion) towards the goods and services tax (GST) in May, around 10% higher on an annual basis," but less than the Rs 2.1 trillion collected in April. ET. That may be because "Annual retail inflation in April was 4.83%, down from 4.85% in March." Reuters. The slight fall in CPI inflation may have been because the government cut domestic cooking gas prices by Rs 100 rupees per cylinder on 8 March, thus reducing fuel costs by a tad. BS. It is a coincidence that, as the GST collections fell from Rs 2.1 trillion in April, the RBI stepped in with a gift of Rs 2.1 trillion in May. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Dictionary. "For all the pride we can justifiably take in India having become the world's fifth largest economy (and IMF projections of becoming the fourth biggest by 2025 and third by 2027). the reality is that when it comes to per capita income we are close to the bottom of the global league tables, at No 144." " It is a sobering thought that in per capita terms, it is only by 2029 that India is forecast to overtake countries like Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea and Angola." Mint. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that, at 18% of GDP, India has one of the lowest external debt among G20 countries. However, the true foreign liability is the difference between assets, which include "all foreign financial assets that Indians own, including international reserves held by the central bank" and liabilities which "consist of domestic assets that foreigners own: direct and portfolio investment into India and external debt such as bonds, loans, deposits, trade credit." This difference is known as the net international investment position (NIIP) and is negative for India. "Between 2003 and 2023, this net liability went up from $60 billion to $396 billion, rising from 9.9% to 11.1% of GDP," wrote Deepa Vasudevan. According to the latest Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS), workforce participation has risen from 67.7% to 69.8% from January-March 2022 to January-March 2024 for men, and from 18.3% to 23.4% for women. But rural regular wages declined by 1.3% per annum in the last five years while urban wages declined by 2.7% per annum in the same period, wrote Prof Himanshu. The GDP is on a trampoline. The people are in a hole.