P 031401Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL MUMBAI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6402
INFO AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 
AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 
AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 
DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
NSC WASHINGTON DC
CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS MUMBAI 000321 
 
 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO TREASURY AND USTR 
TREAS PLEASE PASS TO FED AND OCC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN EINV ENRG EPET TRSY IN
SUBJECT: INFLATION, INTEREST RATES, AND GROWTH IN INDIA 
 
¶1. Summary:  In recent weeks, the Reserve Bank of India has 
raised the main monetary policy rate over 75 basis points in 
order to fight rising inflation.  At the same time, India's main 
stock market indicator, the Sensex, has continued its slide, and 
is now almost 38 percent off its January 2008 peak.  With a 
rising import bill widening India's current account deficit, the 
rupee has continued to depreciate, exacerbating the inflationary 
impact.  Analysts and market players in Mumbai are settling in 
for slower growth and activity, and expect this period to last 
for at least the next six months.  While they acknowledge that 
the RBI is right to raise rates to fight inflation, there is 
major concern about the increase in government spending, which 
is also contributing to inflation and has not been reigned in. 
With credit becoming more expensive, and most equity issuance 
drying up, analysts think that Indian companies will have to 
rely on their "structural tailwind" to ride out the troubles in 
the economy over the next few months.  Nevertheless, at 7 plus 
percent growth, India is still growing at a relative premium to 
much of the rest of the world, even if this rate is not enough 
to fuel the kind of overall economic transformation its leaders 
want.  End Summary. 
 
 
RBI Raises Rates to Fight Inflation 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  On June 24, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled a two- 
pronged strategy to combat inflation.  The RBI raised the repo 
rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 8.50 percent.  (Note:  The repo 
rate is the rate at which RBI injects liquidity in the system. 
The RBI had raised the repo rate by 25 bps on June 11. End 
Note.) The central bank also raised the Cash Reserve Ratio 
(CRR), the proportion of deposits that banks need to maintain 
with the central bank, by 50 bps to be effective in two 
tranches-- 8.50 percent from the fortnight starting July 5 and 
8.75 percent from July 19.  This move came in four days after 
inflation, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), touched 
a 13-year high of 11.05 percent for the week ended June 7.  The 
RBI said these moves were intended to fight inflation and 
establish price stability, while still not stalling growth.  In 
its explanation, the RBI also resolved to "respond swiftly on a 
continuing basis to the evolving constellation of adverse 
international developments and to the domestic situation 
impinging on inflation expectations, financial stability and 
growth momentum, with both conventional and unconventional 
measures, as appropriate."  The RBI had already acted to address 
inflation concerns by raising the CRR three times in April and 
May 2008. 
 
¶3.  Analysts and observers in Mumbai largely concurred that 
while initial inflation was due to a raise in domestic food and 
metals prices, the current high inflation is largely "imported;" 
the rising price of oil is having an impact not only in the 
crude that India must import as fuel, but also in many of the 
major products India needs, such as edible oils.  The 
depreciation of the rupee over the last six months has made this 
global trend more expensive, as the rupee has decreased in value 
against the dollar roughly 10 percent from January.  In 
addition, India's major stock markets have continued on a slow, 
downward slide since their January 2008 highs, amidst some 
volatility.  From its peak of 21,206 in January 2008, the 
Sensex, one of India's two major market barometers, is now 
hovering just below 13,000, a decline of 39 percent and a 
15-month low.  One of the reasons for this decline, besides 
expectations of slower growth, is the exit of foreign 
institutional investors (FIIs).  FIIs brought in over $17 in 
portfolio capital in 2007, but have been net sellers so far this 
year, withdrawing approximately $6.44 billion to date. 
 
¶4.  Analysts and economists in Mumbai told Congenoffs that the 
RBI has clearly embarked on a tightening phase after high 
inflation took the bank - and everyone else - by surprise.  Atsi 
Sheth, Chief Economist for Reliance Equities, expected that, 
despite the recent decrease in domestic food prices due to an 
above average harvest, inflation will remain high for several 
more months due significantly to the oil price pass through, but 
also rising prices for imported or manufactured food (such as 
edible oils) and from steel and cement, whose manufacturers 
still have potent pricing power. 
 
¶5.  As for the performance of the RBI, she said that had higher 
oil prices and commodity-led inflation not hit so suddenly, the 
bank may have been able to cut rates to stem slowing growth.  Up 
until that point, the bank still had flexibility, but it now had 
to raise rates to fight inflation instead.  Stating that much of 
the inflation is imported, she suspected that the RBI would try 
to use the rupee to fight inflation, but given the consistent 
capital outflows, the RBI would not be able to coax the rupee 
beyond 43/dollar; pushing it to 42/dollar would be "an uphill 
battle" and send the wrong market signals, she said.  She 
estimated that the economy would continue to slow until 
December, after which things would likely pick up, including 
interest from foreign institutional investors. 
 
¶6.  Sachchidanand Shulkla, Economist at Enam Securities, a major 
Indian brokerage, expected inflation to be in the double digits 
for the whole of July and August, with some moderation seen from 
September onwards.  He expected another 25 bps repo hike or, if 
liquidity is substantial, another CRR hike in July.  He agreed 
with the market view that the RBI had fallen behind the curve, 
and that the impact of the RBI's efforts on inflation would be 
reflected only after September. Inflation may also ease then due 
to the expected bumper crop, helped by improvements in logistics 
and food distribution.  He added that barring the edible oil 
segment in the WPI, most food prices were moderating.  He 
averred that since this is an election year, however, the 
government would not allow further oil price rises to pass 
through to the public. 
 
¶7.  Indranil Pan, Chief Economist for Kotak Mahindra Bank, 
applauded the RBI for not "giving into market expectations" 
(cutting interest rates when the Fed was doing so) but still 
felt that the Central Bank could have moved faster.  He expected 
the RBI to raise the repo rate by another 25 bps to indicate to 
the market that they are not yet done fighting inflation.  He 
stated that the impact of these policy decisions on economic 
growth wouldn't be seen for at least one year. More hawkish, the 
director of research for Merrill Lynch, Indranil Sen Gupta, 
argues that the RBI will have to continue to raise the CRR and 
the repo rate, and take a much tougher stance over a longer 
period to turn the inflationary tide.  In a recent research 
paper, Tushar Poddar of Goldman Sachs agreed, and expects that 
with inflation continuing in the double digits until the end of 
2008, the RBI will raise the policy rate and CRR again. 
 
 
Corporate Financing Costs Rise.. 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Sheth told Congenoff that companies are finding credit 
harder and more expensive to get, but those who want growth 
capital can still get it.  Companies who want growth capital are 
still riding a "structural tailwind" provided by the previous 
growth cycle.  Infrastructure firms, however, are still growing, 
as the long-term demand makes these projects sensible, if 
perhaps slightly more expensive. Separately, the CEO of Ispat 
Energy expressed his view that only short-term financing costs 
had risen as compared to long-term financing.  With energy costs 
so high, it was viable for them to undertake any energy-saving 
or power production project.  "In the current climate only 
individuals and businesses that were heavily invested/ dependent 
on the stock market were affected", he added.  However, Jamshed 
Irani, Director of Tata Sons, told Congenoffs that increasing 
cost of financing is holding them back on new projects. 
 
¶9. Chetan Modi, India's Moody's representative, said that 
corporate India's true state will be revealed at the end of 
July, when quarterly earnings are released, but believed that 
companies will likely acknowledge a cut-back in capital 
expenditures.  He expected that credit growth will slow 
considerably, and that banks may have to take a "benign view" of 
struggling companies and potential non-performing loans. 
 
¶10.  With the price of credit rising, and most foreign debt 
options closed off, Pan said that Indian companies would likely 
rely on accumulated internal surpluses rather than looking to 
banks or other sources of credit.  He pointed out that the 
Treasury departments of many companies had used their ample cash 
reserves to generate profits in the market, and companies would 
now have to put this capital back into their business.  However, 
he highlighted that most infrastructure companies and SME were 
still deprived of funds. Shukla predicted that while the balance 
sheets of Indian corporates were sound, they would adopt a 
'review and wait' strategy, stalling new projects. 
 
¶11.  The Managing Director of PriceWaterhouseCoopers also told 
Congenoff that while new activity by Indian corporates has 
slowed significantly, PWC is much more active in serving foreign 
clients interested in Indian public or private equity 
investments.  M.K. Sinha, the President of IDFC's Private Equity 
Infrastructure Fund, observed that U.S. investors are hesitant 
to enter new asset classes, such as infrastructure, but there is 
still a great deal of interest in private equity investments in 
India, now that valuations are much less expensive.  He added 
that Indian infrastructure companies are eager to attract 
private equity investments, as it is too difficult to raise 
equity on the markets and debt is more expensive. 
 
 
And Growth Will Slow in Many Areas.. 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  Sheth told Congenoff that companies, especially auto, 
financial services, and consumer goods companies, are slowing 
down to reflect a slowing growth cycle and responding - rightly, 
she believes - to the wider economic and monetary policy 
signals.  According to Pan, 9-10 percent annual growth was never 
sustainable.  Despite slumping markets and growth, he forecast 
that the growth figures wouldn't fall drastically below 7 
percent, due largely to the service sector's ability to "buffer 
the downside risk."  He stressed that India always had a trade 
deficit, but successive India governments "never focused on it." 
 He added that India's exports are almost equal to India's non 
oil imports; but with oil imports constituting almost 30-35% of 
the import bill, he predicted that for every 10 dollar increase 
in oil prices, the trade deficit would widen by about $800 
million. 
 
¶13.  Shukla argued that even if only half of expansion plans 
were put on hold, growth would still remain significant.  Shukla 
felt that high oil prices were due to speculative interest, not 
supply shortages, and that demand would slacken as growth in 
India and China slowed.  He predicted that India's GDP would 
still grow at around 7.8-8.0 percent for FY09, as policy 
measures gradually take hold.  Similarly, he expected that FII 
interest would return after October, prompting another rise in 
equity markets.  However, he cautioned that should oil prices 
continue to rise, growth and markets would take much longer to 
recover. 
 
 
Though Some International Investors Losing Interest 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶14.  Overall, Modi said that international markets are "turning 
against India," looking at the country more critically and 
giving greater weight to political risk.  Modi commented that 
India's leaders have missed many opportunities to introduce 
reforms that would lock in growth; while he expressed sympathy 
for the challenges of India's leaders, he said "India's leaders 
have sat on their hands and basked in the international 
adulation."  Without a continual stream of reforms, he suggested 
that "India's baseline growth is probably below 7 percent." 
 
¶15.  The head of equities for Goldman Sachs agreed that foreign 
investors are pricing in greater political risk for India, more 
in line with other emerging markets.  He said that India's 
market should have begun to fall in line with other Asian 
markets in September and October, but the ongoing confusion over 
Participatory Notes made some investors wary of selling 
immediately, for fear that they could not come back in later. 
Pointing out that $6.5 billion has already flowed out of India 
this year, he said "this could easily double this year," as 
Indian markets remain expensive.  He reported that many Indian 
companies are cancelling or putting on hold expansion projects, 
especially in real estate investments. 
 
 
 
Fiscal Deficit A Major Concern 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶16. Market analysts continue to worry about India's growing 
fiscal deficit, citing a wave of ongoing and upcoming 
expenditures - including a national election within the year -- 
as a major problem for both inflation and fiscal health.  Pan 
estimates that all planned expenditures - oil and fertilizer 
bonds, farm waivers, and higher salaries due to the pay 
commission recommendations - would add almost $20 billion in new 
expenditures this year, all of which is so far unaccounted for 
in the budget.  "No government has ever addressed the fiscal 
mess," he remarked.  Instead, successive governments have cut 
capital expenditures in important areas like irrigation and 
infrastructure rather than reducing debt and subsidies.  Sheth 
echoed Pan in warning that the biggest problem is the fiscal 
deficit; successive Indian governments have had five years of 
growth, but failed to make tough decisions on subsidies and 
other expenditures, which should have been cut. 
 
¶17.  Comment:  A recent article in the paper Mint notes that the 
last time the RBI tightened interest rates - in the mid-1990s, 
also due to inflation - the impact on growth and equity markets 
was felt at least a year later, with markets taking a longer 
time to recover.  While India's economy is structurally 
different than it was 15 years ago, it is possible that growth 
could continue to slow, and markets could continue to drop, 
especially if oil prices stay high and FII interest in India 
take much longer to return.  Analysts and companies are resigned 
to weathering a slower growth period - especially in an election 
season where fighting inflation will be the main priority - 
though India's growth will still likely outpace most other 
countries around the world.  End Comment. 
 
OWEN