- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
- High childcare costs in US weigh on women's employment
- US voters seek help with crushing childcare costs
- Taiwan shuts down for second day as Typhoon Krathon to land
- Supercharged storms: how climate change amplifies cyclones
India quarterly GDP up 13.5% on pandemic rebound, below expectations
A post-pandemic rebound saw India's economy grow 13.5 percent in the June quarter, official figures showed Wednesday, but the expansion was below forecasts thanks to the headwinds buffeting Asia's third-largest economy.
The increase from the same quarter last year reflects a dramatic uptick in activity since mid-2021, when the peak of the country's most devastating coronavirus wave began to recede.
That outbreak saw thousands of people dying across India each day, overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums, and came after an extended lockdown that pummelled consumer spending and brought factories to a standstill.
Wednesday's figure was the highest since the 20.1 percent expansion recorded during the same period last year, at a time when business activity was recovering from government shutdown edicts.
But the result is well below the 16.2 percent forecast by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank, with inflation and other indications of economic weakness dragging down performance.
"The numbers are lower than we expected," State Bank of India chief economic advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh told AFP.
He added that the RBI would most likely revise down its 7.2 percent growth forecast for the year to March 2023, with weakness in the manufacturing sector a cause for concern.
Elevated crude oil prices and a seven percent fall in the rupee this year have left India struggling with a deteriorating trade balance.
India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record $31 billion in July, compared to $10.6 billion in the same month last year, provisional data showed.
Import costs, led by petroleum products and coal, were more than twice as high as export revenues.
India imports more than 80 percent of its crude oil needs and shocks to the market since Russia's invasion of Ukraine have left its 1.4 billion people struggling with higher fuel charges.
Consumer inflation has consistently overshot the central bank's two-to-six percent target range this year, hitting an eight-year high of 7.79 percent in April before cooling to 6.71 percent in July.
But Bank of Baroda chief economist Madan Sabnavis said household spending had remained resilient because of pent-up demand left over from the shock to the economy during the pandemic.
"Normally with high inflation, purchasing power comes down, but that doesn't seem to have played out so far," he told AFP.
In August, India's central bank hiked interest rates for the third time in four months, pushing borrowing costs up to pre-pandemic levels.
The International Monetary Fund last month slashed its growth outlook for India to 7.4 percent, a figure that still exceeds every other major economy besides Saudi Arabia.
St.Ch.Baker--CPN