From Business Standard: India is likely to have a normal monsoon this year, the country’s weather department said on Wednesday giving the country’s coronavirus-battered economy some good news. Monsoon rains are expected to be 100 per cent of a long-term average, M. Rajeevan, secretary at the Ministry of Earth Sciences told a news conference, according to news agency Reuters.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of a 50-year average of 88 centimetres for the entire four-month season beginning June. Monsoon enters Kerala coast on June 1, covers much of central and western India between June 5 and 15, and enters North India from July 1. It is crucial to rice, wheat, sugarcane and oilseeds cultivation in the country, where farming accounts for about 15 per cent of the economy and employs over half of its people.
From Financial Express: With continuous selling in central government securities by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) due to persistent risk aversion in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, general category FPI utilisation of investment limits in G-secs have fallen to 52.31% as on April 13 compared to the peaks of over 75% at the beginning of 2020. In the last 18 consecutive sessions, FPIs have sold Indian bonds – including both G-secs and corporate bonds – worth $8.8 billion, Bloomberg data show. Following the continuous selling by foreign investors, general category FPI investments in G-secs currently stand at just over $17 billion against the total available investment limits worth over $32 billion, CCIL data show.
Manish Wadhawan, managing partner at Serenity Macro Partners, said that markets are a bit wary of the potential spike in fiscal deficit this year. “We saw FPI selling in equities halting a bit in recent times but the selling has continued in debt. I believe FPI fund flows will depend a lot on the fiscal and currency views. Even when foreign investors decide to make a comeback to emerging markets, they will have options to invest in the debt of other countries like Korea and China. The only turning point India can see would be if the RBI decides to conduct open market operations (OMOs) or decides to buy bonds directly in the primary central and state government auctions,” Wadhawan said.
G20 agrees debt freeze for world's poorest countries
From Reuters: Finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies agreed on Wednesday to suspend debt service payments for the world’s poorest countries from May 1 until the end of the year, as a group of private creditors also backed offering debt relief. The moves to freeze both principal repayments and interest payments will free up more than $20 billion for the countries to spend on their health systems and help tackle the coronavirus pandemic, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said.
[...]German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz called the move “an act of international solidarity with a historical dimension,” adding it would let the countries invest in healthcare “immediately and without time-consuming case-by-case examination”. A source familiar with the agreement said it would cover $12-$14 billion in bilateral debt service payments.
The G20 also called on private creditors to participate in the initiative on comparable terms. The Institute of International Finance, which represents 450 banks, hedge funds and other global financial firms, said it would recommend that private sector creditors voluntarily grant similar debt relief to the poorest countries, if they requested it. A French finance ministry official on Tuesday said private creditors had agreed voluntarily to roll over or refinance $8 billion of the debt of the poorest countries, on top of $12 billion in debt payments to be suspended by countries.
