New Delhi: A slew of feel-good news greeted India Inc on the New Year Day with November exports showing signs of scripting a turnaround story and December auto sales zooming, further cementing hopes of a gala 2010.
Boosting the sentiment, leading bankers, including SBI
Chairman OP Bhatt, allayed fears of an imminent interest rate
hike in the wake of ballooning inflation.
Prime Minister's Economic Adviser C Rangarajan also said
economic growth would be a handsome eight percent in 2010-11.
Captains of the industry would also press for
continuation of stimulus measures when they meet Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday to present their Budget
wish-list.
Showing strong signs industrial revival, auto makers
Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors
and Hero Honda reported high double-digit sales growth in
December, the month when sales are generally low as customers
stay away from new buys to avoid losing out on re-sale when
the year of manufacture comes into play.
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India's domestic sales
witnessed a jump of 36.5 percent at 71,000 units. Rival and
the country's second largest carmaker Hyundai's sales surged
42.62 percent at 22,252 units.
Another carmaker General Motors India's sales also notched up over two-fold rise at 8,258 units, making it the highest-ever monthly sales in the 13 years of its operations in India.
Homegrown auto major M&M said its local sales grew by
over two-fold to 22,754 units.
November exports turning positive after a pretty long 13
months was the icing of the New Year cake. Exports grew by
18.2 per cent in November, bolstering a sector worst affected
by the global financial turmoil.
According to official data released today, exports
increased to USD 13.19 billion, marking a trend reversal of
decline that had set in since October 2008 due to widespread
recession in key global markets.
A turnaround in November exports will boost the
sentiment considering that the shipments had plunged by 39 percent in May. The falling trend started post-Lehman Brothers
collapse in October last year. The global crisis coupled with
recession in developed markets saw India's exports taking a
severe beating since then.
On macro front Rangarajan said, "The economy would grow
between 7 and 7.5 percent in the current fiscal and it would
grow by eight per cent in 2010-11 and in the year after that
growth would be nine percent."
On other hand, SBI chairman OP Bhatt said there will be
no increase in the interest rate on loans in the next six
months because of surplus liquidity in the market and rising
deposits, SBI chairman O P Bhatt said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 01, 2010, 23:56