THESE ARE GRIM days for the Indian economy. A tanking rupee, oil prices on fire and international economic turbulence have actually created a constellation of aspects that has made life hard for India’s financial managers. On September Sixth, the rupee breached the 72 mark for a dollar, its most affordable point so far. It has not looked back and given that last week, it has actually remained above that mark. As if acting on hint, equity markets have actually taken a tumble. On September 11th, the benchmark Sensex index shed 509 points– or 1.34 percent– rubbing out 977 points because trading opened after the weekend. If that were not enough, customers were hit hard where it hurts the most: high and increasing prices of fuels like fuel and diesel. In Delhi– where these fuels are the most inexpensive among the four huge metropolitan areas– gas rates now hover above Rs 80.

The financial factors for all this are clear. Considering that January this year, the rupee has lost 13 per cent of its worth. Part of this has to do with high worldwide costs of oil that have galloped in the last one year. These, in turn, have resulted in an imbalance in India’s export- import balance. In July this year, exports grew at 14.3 percent on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, i.e. when compared with the exact same month in 2015. At the same time, imports grew by more than double of that rate at 28.8 percent y-o-y. This was simply one illustrative month. When viewed over a longer duration– from April to July– India’s trade deficit stood at $63.6 billion when compared to the $54.1 billion during the very same period last year.All this has actually offered a scare to financiers, economic observers and people in basic. An eerily similar circumstance occurred 5 summertimes previously in 2013 when the rupee nosedived in what was called the ‘taper tantrum’. That year, the US Federal Reserve revealed that it was winding down its open-ended program of buying private securities. Within no time, the rupee tumbled by practically 21 percent within a span of a couple of months. However that is where the resemblance between the 2 episodes of volatility in the rupee’s value ends. In 2013, India’s present account deficit (CAD)– basically an excess in the value of imports of goods and services over exports of goods and services– stood at a disconcerting 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In FY19, this figure is anticipated to be much lower at 2.4 percent of GDP. In 2013, inflation was close to double digits and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was obstructed in its efforts to bring it down due to the absence of reliable coordination with the Government. For the rate of inflation to come down, a reduction in Federal government expenditures was part of the medicine, something the last federal government refused to take in. In contrast, in 2018, inflation has largely been tamed.That, nevertheless, is just a partial view. When compared to FY18– when CAD stood at 1.8 per cent of GDP– the figure has leapt greatly within a single year. There is a generalised loss of interest amongst financiers in emerging markets, particularly after the rout of the Turkish lira in action to the mismanagement of that economy by its President Recep Tayyip Erdog˘an.For India, there is most likely to be more problem ahead. If there is one economic indication that foreign financiers watch carefully, it is CAD. If the forthcoming trade data release is anything to go by, there are indications that India’s trade performance is likely to aggravate, adding additional pressure on CAD. The US Federal Reserve is also most likely to make a statement on rates of interest at some point this month. Any rate-increase choice is most likely to result in an outflow of loan from India.If the economics of oil rates and rupee’s volatility is clear, the politics over these issues is muddled Is there anything that the RBI and the Federal government can do? The one knee-jerk action that uninformed individuals recommend is for the Reserve bank to

‘conserve the value of the rupee’. For a currency whose worth is figured out by markets, this is a poor choice. What the RBI can do– and it does– is to temper the volatility in the cost of the rupee. This is extremely various from committing a nation’s foreign exchange chest to’save its value’, a policy that never ever works in market economies. Given That April, India’s forex reserves have boiled down from a historic high of$426 billion to roughly$400 billion in August, indicating an expenditure of close to $26 billion in inspecting volatility in the rupee’s worth in the currency market.It is quite most likely that when RBI’s financial policy committee fulfills in October, it may choose a boost in the repo rate– the rate at which RBI lends money to banks– a step that will remain in sync with efforts to detain volatility in the currency market. Technically, the RBI ‘targets’ inflation and not the currency exchange rate of the currency. But in the given scenarios, this will most likely be the best action to take.Another step that has been speculated in recent days is that of releasing bonds for sale to non-resident Indians(NRIs) to draw in foreign exchange. This is historically a choice that has been exercised whenever the country has actually needed

forex and when other alternatives have not been easily readily available. In 1998– the year when India evaluated nuclear weapons and was approved for the action– foreign-bond sales were trapped to bolster the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves. The exact same action was taken 2 years later on in 2000. The most recent episode of such sales was in 2013. There are other steps the Union Federal government can– and should– take. Whatever the critics might say, it must not under any circumstance decrease the additional excise duty and the roadway cess it levies on fuel and diesel.(These quantity to Rs 19.48 per litre for petrol and Rs 15.33 per litre for diesel.

)One, lowering excise will not minimize the demand for these fuels. It should be kept in mind that India imports near 90 percent of the fuel it consumes (petroleum)and the large bulk of this enters into personal usage by the transport sector. It is financially ridiculous for a nation to minimize the price of a product it mostly imports and does not produce, and one that is a consumption great. Two, any reduction in levies by the Union Government will lead to a deterioration in CAD, more putting in pressure on the rupee. In attempting to ‘fix’ one problem, it will intensify another. Lastly, as soon as an excise decrease is effected, it ends up being politically extremely difficult, if not difficult, for a government to re-instate it. The last time this was done was in June 2011 when the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee slashed custom-mades and excise responsibilities on fuels. It took the NDA Federal government to repair India’s fuel economy when it presumed power in 2014. This Federal government has, so far, resisted the pressure to decrease excise. 3 states– Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal– have gone on and reduced the rates of fuels by tinkering with the state-level taxes on fuels. It is notable that Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are really near state Assembly elections.If the economics of oil rates and rupee’s volatility is clear, the politics over these concerns is muddled. In the last one year, if not earlier, not one bit of financial data has actually been spared from political interpretations. In this all political celebrations are complicit.’Who bloodied the rupee?’is a concern that is political and not financial. This is generally followed by a litany of charges that has little to do with the financial reasons for the rupee’s decline. Inevitably, this is followed by problems versus the items and services tax (GST)being ‘ruinous ‘for small traders and business, and that usually closes the circle of charges against the government. The truth is far more complicated: India’s failure to press exports and curb the usage of fuels– even in cities where public transportation is much better than the majority of India– is amongst essential issues that wind up developing this twin problem. Is this something that any federal government can repair with some policy steps? The option of transport and gathering export markets are part preference issues and part due to absence of coordination among economic representatives. Federal governments can just take incremental steps.But no political party is immune from playing politics in this. Back in 2013, it was the BJP that was scolding the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance for the’destruction ‘of the rupee. Now the boot is on the other foot. What requires a modification is the behaviour of the parties that have the tendency to search for chances all over to score a point against the federal government of the day. Economic outcomes– which arise by a very different set of factors– should be spared from political mudslinging. This is all the more so as harmful political claims and

counter-claims create financial expectations that are frequently beyond political control and to the detriment of everyone.