Category: Economy

South Africa is poised to reclaim its position as Africa’s largest economy, a title currently held by Nigeria. This shift in economic standings is attributed to a combination of South Africa’s consistent economic growth and Nigeria’s challenges in maintaining its rapid expansion.

Over the years, South Africa has embarked on various reforms and initiatives aimed at boosting its economy. The country has seen substantial growth in sectors such as manufacturing, technology, and services. Investments in infrastructure and a focus on diversifying the economy have also played crucial roles in this upward trajectory.

On the other hand, Nigeria, despite being rich in resources, particularly oil, has faced numerous challenges that have hindered its economic progress. Issues such as political instability, corruption, and inadequate infrastructure have all contributed to its economic woes. Additionally, the fluctuating oil prices on the global market have had a significant impact on Nigeria’s economy, given its heavy reliance on oil exports.

As South Africa continues on its path of steady economic growth and development, it is set to surpass Nigeria, showcasing the strength and resilience of its economy. This potential shift is not just a testament to South Africa’s economic prowess but also highlights the need for stability and diversification in fostering economic growth across the continent.

US investment bank Morgan Stanley on October 20 underscored India’s growing economic strength by upgrading India to “standout overweight.” The status is based on the country’s improving relative economic and earnings growth and the strength of the macro-stability set-up, which looks sufficient to withstand the higher real rate environment.

The “dream” run of domestic flows continues and multipolar world dynamics are driving both FDI as well as portfolio flows towards the country, it said. Domestic equities top the brokerage’s global equity investment score with an overall score of 68. In the list of top five markets this year, Singapore is second after India with the score of 54; Greece is at 47, Mexico at 43, and Poland at 38.

India has been structurally outperforming MSCI EM index by 45.5% (in USD terms) from early 2021 until October 2022. Morgan Stanley expects this outperformance to continue, “with India starting to show a material breakout in relative EPS versus EM and having relatively low correlation/revenue from both the US and China.”

Morgan Stanley said that the recent high-frequency trends also support its bullish stance with inflation concerns abating and the trade balance improving, adding that other than India only Japan has an overweight stance in Asia.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will start setting up Bharat Semiconductor Research Centre from next year in collaboration with the industry and academia, said Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar on October 20. The centre aims to make India a global foundry supplier for semiconductors, packagers and integrated systems from design to products.

A MeitY expert panel has recommended setting up a semiconductor research centre with an initial investment of around $8 billion (about Rs 66,500 crore) over the next five years. The panel submitted its report to the union minister.

Chandrasekhar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is that Indians should be involved in the leadership of semiconductor research. He added that the proposed research centre will be a global institution in semiconductor research, and become one of the leading semiconductor research institutes in the next 4-5 years.

The minister said that there is a need for the formulation of a long-term strategy for developing a vibrant and sustainable semiconductor research ecosystem including design, chip fabrication, packaging and system research for both industrial and academic domains. Intellectual Property Rights are crucial to the development and manufacturing of semiconductors by companies. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 12 said that the unemployment rate in the country is at its lowest level in the last six years. In a video message to the Kaushal Deekshant Samaroh of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the Prime Minister noted that new possibilities are being created for the youth as India’s economy is expanding.

“The unemployment is decreasing rapidly in both rural and urban areas of India. It means the benefits of development are reaching both villages and cities equally, and as a result, new opportunities are increasing equally in both villages and cities,” he said.

PM Modi underlined the government’s focus on skill development as a reason for low unemployment. “Our government understood the importance of skill and created a separate ministry for it and allocated a separate budget,” he said.

In his address, the leader noted the importance of skilling, upskilling and re-skilling, rapidly changing demands and nature of jobs, and the need to upgrade the skills accordingly. He also informed that about 5,000 new ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) have been set up in the country in the last 9 years and added more than 4 lakh new seats. These institutes are being upgraded as model ITIs to provide efficient and high-quality training with best practices.

The Prime Minister also pointed out the unprecedented increase in the participation of women in India’s workforce.

Global technology companies in Israel may shift their business operations to India or other locations such as the Middle East or Eastern Europe, if the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, said a news report. Cited industry experts, the report said that the businesses may shift to locations with similar time zones and talent capabilities.

According to reports, there are over 500 global companies in Israel. In addition to Microsoft, Intel, and Google from the US, firms such as Wipro and TCS from India have businesses in the country. These companies employ at least over 100,000 people.

For a few decades, high-tech industries have been the fastest growing sector in Israel and crucial for economic growth, accounting for 14% of jobs, which is almost a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.

US chipmaker Intel is “closely monitoring the situation in Israel and taking steps to safeguard and support our workers.” Another US chipmaker, Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of chips used for intelligence and computer graphics, recently cancelled an AI summit scheduled for Tel Aviv.

The Government of India has decided to rescind its earlier decision to impose restrictions on laptop imports. Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal made this announcement on October 13.

The original plan, which sought to implement a licensing system for laptop imports on August 3, was intended to ensure the entry of “trusted hardware and systems” into India. However, it faced a three-month delay due to opposition from the industry and criticism from other countries. Major tech giants like Apple, Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, and HP would have been significantly affected had the initial plan gone into effect.

It’s important to note that this reversal does not entail a return to the previous import protocol. Santosh Kumar Sarangi, the Director General of Foreign Trade, has stated that the government is currently engaging with industry stakeholders to formulate a new set of regulations. This revised framework is expected to be unveiled by the end of October.

Iin August 2023, the Indian government declared its intention to make import licenses mandatory for electronic products, including laptops and tablets, starting from November 1, 2023. However, the enforcement of these restrictions was suspended, and has now been discarded in favour of a forthcoming alternative approach.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched its first wind project of commercial size, making use of technology to exploit low wind speeds. The 103.5-megawatt project run by renewable energy firm Masdar is set to power more than 23,000 homes a year, spanning four locations.

The project developed by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar, demonstrates for the first time the latest technology and innovation to capture low wind speeds at utility scale, adopting advances in material science and aerodynamics to make wind power possible in the country. It marks the debut of cost-effective, large-scale, utility wind power on the UAE’s electricity grid, diversifying the country’s energy mix and advancing its energy transition.

The wind project will help displace around 1,20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide or carbon footprint annually, which would be the equivalent of removing around 26,000 cars from the roads.

The four locations chosen for the project are the scenic Sir Bani Yas Island (45MW), the historical pearl-diving centre, Delma Island (27MW), and Al Sila in Abu Dhabi (27MW), and Al Halah in Fujairah (4.5MW). Home to free-roaming wildlife, Sir Bani Yas Island also has a 14 MWp (megawatt peak) solar farm.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 14 announced that the governments of India and Sri Lanka are working together on fintech sector connectivity by linking Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Lanka Pay. The Prime Minister said this in his video message aired at the launch of ferry services between Nagapattinam in India and Kankesanthurai in Sri Lanka.

PM Modi and Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe had signed an agreement on UPI acceptance in Sri Lanka during Wickremesinghe’s two-day visit to India in July this year.

In 2022, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation that offers UPI services, signed a memorandum of understanding with France’s fast and secure online payment system, Lyra. In 2023, UPI and Singapore’s PayNow signed an agreement, allowing users in either country to make cross-border transactions. The UAE, Bhutan, and Nepal have already adopted the UPI payment system.

UPI recorded 10.56 billion transactions in September. It was slightly lower than the 10.58 billion transactions reported in August, the first time the instant payment mechanism crossed the 10 billion transaction mark.

India has allowed Nepal to sell the electricity generated by two of the Himalayan country’s hydropower projects in its real-time energy market, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

On July 31, India had opened the door to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to participate in its real time energy market by amending the ‘Procedure for approval and facilitating import/export (cross border) of electricity by the designated authority’ issued in February 2021.

The Central Electricity Authority of India has allowed trading of 44 MW of electricity generated by the 19.4 MW Lower Modi and 24.25 MW Kabeli B-1 hydropower projects in the real-time market in the first phase. Approval has been received for the sale of electricity from two projects in both the day-ahead and the real-time markets. The projects that have received approval for selling power in the day-ahead market need to get permission or be renewed every year.

Since November 2021, India has allowed Nepal to sell its power in its day-ahead market. The hilly country has been allowed to sell 522 MW of electricity in this market.

India has also started buying power from Nepal under a medium-term five-year power deal since early September. Nepal sells 110 MW of electricity to Haryana through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited, India’s nodal agency for bilateral electricity trade with neighbouring countries. The NEA sold electricity worth Rs. 5.43 billion in India during the first two months of the current fiscal.

Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco has increased the official selling prices (OSP) for November-loading Arab Light to Asia by 40 cents a barrel from October to $4 a barrel over Oman/Dubai quotes. The Kingdom on October 4 announced that it will continue with its voluntary output cut of 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) for November and until the end of December 2023.

The price hike is in accordance with the market expectations of an increase of about 45 cents, and has pushed the price for the medium sour crude to its highest level this year.

Saudi Aramco also raised the price for Extra Light crude to Asia by 50 cents in November to $3.35 a barrel over Oman/Dubai quotes, reflecting the strengthening of prices for light sour grades in the spot market. The OSPs for Arab Medium and Arab Heavy have been kept unchanged.

The voluntary cut of 1 million bpd in November and December means Saudi Arabia’s production for the final two months of the year will be approximately 9 million bpd. This reduction is in addition to the voluntary cuts the country had announced in April, when the country agreed to reduce output by 5,00,000 bpd until the end of December 2024.