India’s Solid GDP Growth

India Continues With Solid Economic Growth

First Published: July 14, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

The recession has been good and bad for India. With the recession, spending has gone down and the amazing growth in auto sales has slowed. In years past the industry grew by 30 percent per year, but this past year it grew by only 15 percent as more and more people in India began to hold back on spending. However, overall the economy of India has continued to grow even during the recession. The International Monetary Fund recently announced that in 2010, the forecast growth for the country is 9.5 percent. The reason for this is the high corporate profits, as well as the financial conditions that were very favourable.

Originally, India was expected to only have a growth of 8.8 percent, but that was raised as the country continued to do well as the world moved out of a recession. The growth of 9.5 percent is roughly two percent above the growth for last year in India, which stood at only 7.4 percent. This is better than the global economy growth which only stood at five percent in the first quarter of 2010. This shows that India is doing very well and continuing to grow while the recession has hurt other countries. Asia as a whole is doing very well, and that is helping India as its major trading partners are in Asia, as well as the United States, which outsources a great deal of work to the subcontinent.

However, if you are looking for a country to invest in, India does have its benefits but its growth is still lower than that of China, which has a growth of 10.5 percent right now. Japan in contrast is the second largest economy on Earth, but it only had a growth of 1.9 percent, which was well below that of India. This shows that India’s economy is stronger at the moment than some of the largest economies on the planet.  Throughout the recession, many investors worried about investing in India because the country had never gone through a huge recession such as the one in the last 2000s. However, after some initial hiccups, the economy of India began to grow once again, move past the rest of the world in terms of the speed of growth, only beaten by China.

This allowed investors to determine India is a country that is growing quickly and rapidly, and is still seeing huge growth while other countries are struggling. The recession has begun to fade and with it India is again moving forward.

This continues the process that began in the late-1990s when India began to implement major reforms for its economy. This allowed India to grow in economic power, which has helped its citizens have a better standard of living. More people buying in India helps the economy grow, and the better the economy grows, the more India can export cheaply to other countries like Canada, America and China.

If you are looking for a country to invest in, invest one of the few that actually did well during the recession

Tips for Saving For Retirement in Your Later Years

Later Years Retirement Saving Tips

First Published Date : July 18, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

In a perfect world, we would all save for retirement early but life has a way of getting into the mix and changing things around us. Sometimes it can be difficult to make sure you put the money away that you need to for your retirement years and it is not uncommon for an individual to save for their retirement but do so in their 40s and 50s.

If you are in your 40s and 50s and you do not have much in the way of retirement savings, you can follow these tips to start saving in your later years:

·    Look at how much you spend and live on right now and then determine how much you will need per year in your retirement. If you spend $60,000 per year on all your bills, mortgages, debts, etc, then when you retire you will probably spend around $30,000 since many of your debts will be paid off. That means on average from the age of 65 to 85, you will need at least $600,000 saved up. Now that you know how much you need, you can start saving.

·    Look at your retirement savings plan like the Canada Pension Plan and 401(k) and determine how much you can contribute per year to help you reach your goal.

·    Talk with your employer and see if they can contribute to your retirement plans as well, and find out what the pension from your employer is like.

·    Start looking at ways that you can save money with your life at this point. Maybe downsize the home you live in, sell one of your cars, start cutting back in any way that you can. The more money you save now, the more you will have to put away for retirement. If you are able to save $10,000 per year from the age of 40 to 65, you will have saved $250,000, which is an excellent sum and almost half what we calculated you would need at $30,000 per year post retirement.

·    Probably the most important thing you can do to save for your retirement in your later years is to get yourself out of debt. When you are in debt, you are paying money every month and it can amount to a lot of money. Therefore, work to pay off your debt in the next five years and you will find that the amount you can save will triple or even quadruple. Do you want to save $10,000 per year or $40,000 per year?

Retirement is something we all look forward to but not all of us save for it. When we are in our 20s, retirement is the last thing we are thinking about but as we get closer to our 50s, the looming retirement begins to come into our sights and we need to start thinking about saving for it. You can save enough money for your retirement in your 40s and 50s; it just takes a bit of work to do it.

Economic Growth of China to Slow Down

China’s Slow Economic Growth

First Published Date : July 25, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

China over the past few years has been an amazing success story with a massive amount of growth over the past decade. The country of China is expected to overtake the United States as the most dominant economic power on the planet, but that may not come as soon as many forecasters thought. With the recession hitting the world hard, Citigroup Inc. has lowered the forecast for China’s economic expansion for the rest of 2010. China is currently the third-largest economy in the world, right after the United States and Japan, but fewer purchases by consumers in those countries have caused less goods being exported out of China.

China showed a slowing in its second quarter, which resulted in the forecast by Citigroup being lowered for the third and fourth quarters of 2010. The gross domestic product of China was originally forecasted to be 10.5 percent for 2010, but that has been lowered to 9.5 percent. This resulted in the biggest one-month reduction in the outlook of the country’s economy since 2001. In addition, the growth projections for 2011 were lowered, as was the economic forecast of the major trading partners of the United States and China.

The world’s economic growth is expected to slow due to China trying to curb property prices, Europe’s debt issues and the economic outlook of the United States. In 2011, it is forecast that China will have its economy grow by about 8.8 percent, which is half a percent lower than the previous forecast. One good thing is that the country will see its inflation rate go down next year, falling from 4.6 percent this year to 3.6 percent next year.

In the second quarter of 2010, China only had a growth of 10.3 percent, which was lower than the 11.9 percent increase seen in the first quarter. The inflation rate fell from 3.1 percent in May down to 2.9 percent in June. In addition, property prices around the country fell by .1 percent in about 70 Chinese cities, which ended almost a year and a half in growth for property prices in the country. Citigroup was not the only bank to lower the rate of increase for China. Deutsche Bank AG forecasted that China would have a growth rate of 8.6 percent in 2011, down from the bank’s forecasted growth rate for 2010 of 9.6 percent.

Does this mean that the economy for China is going to reverse? Not in the least. China is still a force to be reckoned with around the world as its economy continues to grow at an amazing rate. No other country on Earth is coming close to the growth rate of China these days and even if China has seen a decline, it is still growing during a major recession. As the world moves out of the recession, China again will see a major growth for the country’s economy and that will eventually push it past the economy of the United States midway through the 21st century.

Commercial Real Estate Loans in Canada

Commercial Property Loans in Canada

First Published Date : July 28, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

The commercial property market in any country plays a major part in its economy, being the point where retail and investment banking meet. There is a lot of encouragement given by any government in the issue of keeping commercial properties running and finding a way for them to keep up with debt repayments so as to avoid the worrying eventuality of a commercial property closing down – thus depriving the economy of the tax dollars from the property and business itself, and the banks of important money from mortgage repayments. It is a lose-lose-lose situation when one takes into account the owner of the business going bust. Yet there is a very real situation emerging at present which suggests that commercial property loans will need to be looked at very closely in the coming year.

Commercial loans are unlike residential mortgages in that the latter are self-amortizing, and as long as the resident has a well-chosen mortgage their payments will shrink in real terms as the life of the mortgage runs down. At a given point with a commercial loan, the payments may well begin to increase, having been agreed on the basis that profits from business will rise year-on-year. Depending on the nature of the loan, the case may well be that the borrower needs to look at refinancing the loan or repaying it in full. There are billions of dollars’ worth of commercial property loan coming due for refinancing or repayment this year – and several companies who are in no position to meet either of these conditions.

At present, the government and the banks are working together to find the best way of ensuring that the mortgage deals hanging in the balance are restructured in a way that leaves no-one too seriously out of pocket. Although the properties which are bought with commercial real estate loans represent an asset that can be repossessed and re-sold, there is still a large level of reluctance to borrow among the general and business public, raising the spectre of commercial properties remaining vacant for the time being. This leaves the banks with assets of limited worth, the government with a reduced level of tax income from these sources, and civic authorities with the problem of empty properties on their high streets – not encouraging for trade, and considered to be injurious to civic pride and all the things which flow from that.

As we were in a recession with a global reach, there are no short cuts where business and commercial real estate financing is concerned. Foreign investment is no more likely than domestic, as Canada is in better shape than most economies worldwide. In order to keep businesses open and trading, some level of agreement needs to be made between the government and private finance so that the best outcome for everyone is achievable. Anyone looking for a commercial real estate loan at the present time may well be in an advantageous position, as there will be breaks available while the government seeks to encourage lending. Everyone is holding their breath at the moment waiting to see how this recession has had its play coming out of recession. Some proactive conduct on the businessperson’s part at this moment might well be sensible.

Kuala Lumpur Full-Day City Tour – Part 4 Batu Caves Tour

Malaysia Travel Blog: Discover Amazing Kuala Lumpur City Tour

Kuala Lumpur Travel Blog: Part 7

Batu Caves Tour

Batu Caves was only 20-minute drive from Kuala Lumpur. I was again mesmerized by the greeneries everywhere in Malaysia. Once we left downtown Kuala Lumpur, the scenery changed from skyscrapers to suburbs and mountains.Batu Caves is home to a huge 154-foot (47-meter) Hindu gold Lord Murugan statue on top of the mountains. The statue is gold painted and can be seen from afar.

Also, there are 4 four limestone caves: Temple Cave, Dark Cave, Cave Villa, and Ramayana Cave. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is a very popular spot for tourists, pilgrims, and rock climbers.

I saw lots of flower shops at the entrance. Religious people buy flowers for gods and goddesses. To reach the top, I had to climb a steep flight of 272 steps. I thought of not going up, but ultimately decided to conquer these steep steps. The guide stayed on the ground.

As I was climbing up, the panoramic views of Kuala Lumpur were changing step by step due to the elevation level. It was intense, hard work, so I took rest after every few steps and started again. 

There were lots of long-tailed gray macaque monkeys all over. Tourists were feeding them, and they were not afraid of humans. Sometimes they were climbing on tourists’ heads or shoulders.

Once I reached the top, a spectacular vista of Kuala Lumpur reaching far away opened up in front of my eyes. At the base, the other caves and entrances could be seen. I saw some Hindu temple and shrines as well.

Climbing down the stairs was not difficult. I was surprised that I was able to make it and didn’t feel any pain in my legs. Tomorrow I will another short tour and I’ll be leaving Malaysia the day after.