India becomes next big growth bet
With India’s economy expanding at the fastest pace among major emerging markets, companies are trying to serve its diverse palette by launching new flavors and size variants aimed at attracting the country’s vast population and untapped rural market. “While the last decade had companies focused on selling into China, the next decade is about selling into India,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “You have to go where the demographic and economic tailwinds are at your back.” Major consumer goods companies based in India, the world’s most populous country, are expecting higher government spending, a better monsoon season and a resurgence in private consumption to help consumer spending recover in the coming quarters. That is expected to boost the combined market share of the top five multinational companies – Coca-Cola, P&G, PepsiCo, Unilever and Reckitt – to 20.53 percent in 2023 from 19.27 percent in 2022, mainly in the baby care, consumer health, cosmetics, beverage and household categories, according to research firm GlobalData.
| India In Statistics | ||||||
| Details | Last | Previous | Highest | Lowest | Value | Reference |
| Stock Market | 78971 | 79649 | 82129 | 113 | points | Aug/24 |
| GDP Growth Rate | 1.9 | 2.1 | 22.4 | -22.7 | percent | Mar/24 |
| GDP Annual Growth Rate | 7.8 | 8.6 | 22.6 | -23.1 | percent | Mar/24 |
| Unemployment Rate | 9.2 | 7 | 23.5 | 6.4 | percent | Jun/24 |
| Inflation Rate | 3.54 | 5.08 | 12.17 | 1.54 | percent | Jul/24 |
| Interest Rate | 6.5 | 6.5 | 14.5 | 4 | percent | Aug/24 |
| Cash Reserve Ratio | 4.5 | 4.5 | 10.5 | 3 | percent | Aug/24 |
| Balance of Trade | -21 | -23.8 | 0.71 | -31.46 | USD Billion | Jun/24 |
| Current Account | 5700 | -8700 | 19083 | -31857 | USD Million | Mar/24 |
Asia-Pacific must accelerate action against climate change, poverty and hunger
The Asia-Pacific region is faltering on decades of progress in reducing poverty and hunger. Increasingly, severe climate-related hazards are threatening food security and triggering human displacement on an unprecedented scale. The rapid rise in global temperatures is producing record breaking heat in major cities around the region. We are getting our first glimpse of a future where global temperatures rise beyond the climate tipping point of 1.5°C. The burden of climate impacts is unevenly distributed, with poorer countries and communities far more vulnerable and less able to adapt. Droughts, floods and heatwaves are straining environmental and socio-economic systems, resulting in more poverty, less food security, and failing levels of health and nutrition.
In mainland China economic recovery continuing
Economic recovery is expected to continue in mainland China for a second year, albeit the pace of economic expansion is expected to be moderate somewhat. Private consumption is expected to be a key driver of economic growth in 2024. The pace of growth of retail sales of consumer goods showed significant improvement during the second half of 2023, with retail sales in November rising by 10.1 percent y/y, compared with a growth rate of only 2.5 percent y/y in July. For the first 11 months of 2023, retail sales of consumer goods rose by 7.2 percent y/y. The headline seasonally adjusted Caixin General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) increased from 50.7 in November to 50.8 in December, to signal a marginal positive expansion in manufacturing conditions. Supporting the positive survey reading for November was a quicker rise in overall new orders received by Chinese goods producers in December, reflecting strong demand for consumer goods. However, new export orders continued to fall slightly, marking the sixth consecutive month of contraction in export orders, although the rate of decline moderated.
By service sector Japan’s economy boosted
Japan’s GDP growth strengthened in 2023, helped by improving private consumption after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were gradually removed. The au Jibun Bank Flash Japan Services Business Activity Index picked up from 50.8 in November to 52.0 in December, to signal continuing expansionary conditions at a pace that was the quickest since September. In contrast, business conditions in the manufacturing sector continued to show moderate contraction according to the headline au Jibun Bank Japan PMI, which edged lower to 47.9 in December from 48.3 in November. Manufacturing companies reported a sharp decline in new orders, which in turn led to a slightly quicker reduction in factory output.
Bangladesh economy under pressure
The student protests that have rocked Bangladesh since July 1 and led Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in the middle of the night in a helicopter to New Delhi have battered the domestic economy, with losses estimated at billions of dollars. Now, even as Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus prepares to guide an interim government in Dhaka, businesses are struggling with the unprecedented nature of recent events and what comes next. “Very few expected the situation to turn the way it had,” Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, told Al Jazeera, referring to the dozens killed and injured earlier this week and Hasina’s departure. “Bangladesh has had many coups, but this is new – this people power, the sheer power of the demonstrators. Now we’re in uncharted territory.” This level of political turmoil will have economic ramifications, Nadjibulla said.