RESILIENT GLOBAL ECONOMY AMIDST GEOPOLITICAL TURMOIL

The financial year 2024 has been quite an eventful year starting with supply chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts and the Red Sea crisis.

- RAJIV KAPOOR

These disruptions had led to a sharp jump in shipping rates with crude oil prices soaring post the Iran-Israel war leading to a surge in inflation numbers. Despite many unfavourable situations, the world avoided a recession and the banking system proved largely resilient with global growth pretty buoyant despite the above-mentioned adverse circumstances. From a domestic perspective, despite many headwinds, the India growth story remains positive with major economic indicators like the PMI, services index, GST, and direct tax collections reporting robust business activity. The country’s growth has been driven by the government’s Make in India initiative and significant infrastructure spending leading to a robust GDP growth. Another positive was the foreign exchange reserves which rose for the third straight week to touch USD 648.700 billion for the week ending 17 May 2024 as per data shared by the Reserve Bank of India. The headlines of May 22, Reserve Bank of India approving the transfer of Rs 210874 crores as surplus dividend to the Central Government for the accounting year 2023-24 was received very well by stock market players with the BSE Sensex rising nearly 1200 points on that day.