India’s Sideline Budget Promises Higher Economic Growth, But Does Little to Attract Foreign Investors

India’s Cautious Budget and Its Revised GDP

First Published Date : March 22, 2012 ADawnJournal.com

India’s finance minister presented its recent budget without taking any significant steps towards economic reforms and fiscal discipline. However, the budget promises a higher GDP growth of 7.6 percent for the next fiscal year. This is up from current fiscal year’s expected 6.9 percent ending in March, but far below the 8 to 9 percent GDP India experienced for the last decade.

India’s economy went through its slowest pace in three years for the last 3 months of 2011. Many government development plans were abandoned due to the slow pace. However, some sectors are showing signs of recoveries such as electricity, coal, cement, and fertilizer, as mentioned by the finance minister. India spends 2.5 percent of its GDP on subsidies such as food, fuel, fertilizer. India plans to cut subsidy spending to 1.7 percent. Higher oil prices are one of the main causes that make subsidy spending to swell.

Inflation has been one of the main contributing factors for the slowing growth in India. India’s central bank has had to increase interest rate 13 times for the last two years – pushing the borrowing cost 8.5 percent and making it difficult for economic growth.
Structural reforms and fiscal discipline were expected in this budget. However, a government battered by political instability and corruption charges doesn’t have much to do to take any dramatic steps toward big reforms. India runs both budget and account deficits, and this budget aims to make 5.1 percent of GDP next year from 5.9 percent this year.

Many foreign investors became impatient with India’s economy due to its slow growth and political corruption and instability. The new budget addresses very little to invigorate market sentiment to attract foreign investors. According to rating agency Standard and Poor’s, the new budget would be considered “mildly negative”.

India’s Slower GDP Growth Is a Threat to Curb Its High Poverty

High-Inflation and Slower Economic Growth Effect Poverty

First Published Date: June 28, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

India is a country which stands seventh largest in area and second largest in population. As a developing country, India’s economy is the tenth largest in the world and third largest in Asia in terms of nominal GDP and forth largest in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). India is a growing giant and its economy is growing fast. This growth rate seemed to be on the verge of 10 percent, as economists were convinced. However, recent data released show India’s economy grew by 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010-2011 ending in March. This slower GDP growth rate will likely to effect the reversal of India’s high poverty level.

7.8 percent growth is the lowest rate in five quarters. The same three-month period of the previous fiscal year had a growth rate of 9.4 percent. The GDP for the full 2010-2011 fiscal year stands at 8.5 percent, which is lower than estimated 8.6 percent, but an increase from 2009-2010 rate of 8 percent.

High inflation, which is currently running at 8.7 percent, is one of the major causes to weaken economic growth. Indian prime minister recently stated that 2011-2012 growth rate prediction of 9 percent would likely to be missed. To curb high inflation, India’s central bank raised interest rates nine times in the past fifteen months. However, these rate hikes slowed down manufacturing sector investments, which likely impacted industrial output.

India needs high (such as double-digit) growth to tackle its high poverty. However, to fight inflation, this growth has to be sacrificed. India is under economic expansion for 20 years; however, the poverty level hasn’t improved significantly. One in every two children in India is still malnourished. India needs high economic growth to run various essential projects aiming to curb poverty for millions of poverty-stricken population. With high inflation and slower economic growth, things are not looking bright at this moment.

How To Retire Early

Retiring Early

First Published Date: July 6, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

When you are thinking of retiring, there are many things you will want to do in order to retire early. Retiring early is very important because it gives you more time to enjoy your Golden Years, but you also need to make sure you have enough money for those Golden Years as well.

Naturally, the most important thing you can do is to start early in saving up for your retirement savings. You want to start early because not only will that help you weather any financial storms in life, it will allow you to save more money for a longer period of time. If you do not start early with saving for your retirement, there is little chance that you are going to be able to retire early.

Of course, starting early is only part of it, you need to also cut how much you spend. Remember, the less you spend, the more you save. The more you save, the earlier you can retire. It really is just that easy, so forget about getting that second car and look at getting some money into the bank instead. Do you need a big house? No, then go and put that money you would have spent on a large mortgage into the bank.

Start putting money into your retirement plans at work as soon as you can. Whether it is a Canada Pension Plan or IRA with the United States.

Investing is important if you want to retire early but it will do you no good to invest in risky ventures that could cost you all the money you have saved.

When you are younger, you can invest more aggressively because there is a greater amount of time to recoup any losses you suffer. However, as you age, make your investments safer and safer. Don’t be investing in junk bonds at the age of 50 because you may win big, but you could just as easily lose very big.

Mortgages cost a lot of money and the sooner you pay off your mortgage, the more money you can save each month. If your mortgage costs you $1,500 a month, paying it off will earn you $3,000 every two months, $30,000 every 20 months and by the time you reach five years, you will have saved $150,000.

Obviously, it is not always that easy to save for an early retirement but by starting sooner, spending less and being wise with your investments you could see yourself hitting your golden years at 50, instead of 65, giving you a lot of extra time to enjoy life before you have to slow things done because of old age.

Of course if you don’t do any of these things, you can always hope that you a rich uncle will pass away and leave you a vast fortune that you can retire on, but that is about as likely as winning the lottery.

Financial Author A Dawn’s New Book Save Now Is Designed To Reach His Global Readers

Dawn Starts Working on His Second Book “Save Now: A Universal Guide to Saving”

First Published Date: July 13, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

When my first book Invest Now was published, my main site A Dawn Journal was just starting out and there were hardly any readers.

Three years later, I have just started working on my second book “Save Now”, and things have changed since then. With all my sites (see Links on the right sidebar for URLs), being A Dawn Journal is now a high traffic site, I am able to reach more than a thousand visitors daily – and this global traffic reach is increasing steadily on a regular basis.

At this point, the time has come for me to write a book to reach my global readers and this is what I have in mind working on “Save Now.” This book will be packed with simple and doable tips to save money that can be applied across the globe. Here is a short post I wrote for the A Dawn Books site describing more about “Save Now.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – America’s New Financial Watchdog

First Published Date: July 19, 2011 ADawnJournal.com

America’s new financial watchdog the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau starts its journey this week. It was setup in the aftermath of the global financial crisis to give US consumers financial rights and to protect consumers by carrying out financial laws.

The central role of the CFPB to inform consumers by promoting financial education, enforce Federal consumer financial laws, and study, analyze information to better understand consumers, financial markets and service providers.

Information is what makes all the difference when it comes to understand the terms and agreements implemented by the financial companies. These terms and agreements are written in such a way that even an MBA holder faces difficulty comprehending the true meaning lies behind these infinite mazes – forget about a general consumer with no financial literacy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s main objective will be to educate consumers, so they understand the risks and rewards when they shop for financial products. The CFPB will be doing various other things. Here are some of the most important ones:

– Enforce consumer protection laws

– Monitor financial markets to restrict illegal, abusive practices and to identify new
risks  to consumers

– Maintain a consumer toll-free hotline to take complaints

– Review practices of financial service providers

– Promote financial literacy

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resulted from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed this act into law.