Economy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been slowing its intervention efforts in recent months as emerging markets faced a rout and oil prices surged.

The government said on Monday announced a plan to merge three state-run banks. Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda will be merged to create the third largest bank in the country, as part of efforts to clean up the country's banking system, an official release said. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government has suggested the banks to consider the proposal. At present, state-run State Bank of India, and private sector peers HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are the three largest lenders in the country.

Last month, the ministry approved construction of nearly 1.12 lakh more affordable houses for urban poor.

Icra also estimates that Rs 1.3 trillion of SDLs are scheduled to be redeemed in FY19, much higher than Rs 0.8 trillion redeemed in FY18.

Assuring that the effects of GST (Goods and Services Tax) are settling down and that consumption is picking up, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that the economy will post a high growth or gross domestic product (GDP) this fiscal year. The comments from the finance minister came at a time when the rupee has been sinking to multiple lows and crude oil prices are soaring. The government will also meet and perhaps exceed its disinvestmemt target for fiscal 2019, Mr Jaitley said, after a meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi, where he took stock of the economy.

Ahead of the general elections, the revision will entail huge relief for passengers who sometimes have to pay at par with flight tickets in some sectors for trains.

The government has decided to cut non-essential imports and increase exports amid a widening current account deficit (CAD), sliding rupee and soaring crude oil prices, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

PM Modi will hold another economic review meeting with key policy makers on Saturday to discuss possible interventions by the government to address the macroeconomic challenges.

Wholesale inflation in primary articles eased to 0.1 per cent from 1.73 per cent in the previous month. Inflation in 'fuel & power' was at 17.73 per cent in August, the data showed.

Steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said on Thursday he wanted the finance ministry to scrap the 2.5 per cent duty on imports of coking coal.

Earlier in May, the exports recorded a growth of 201.18%. The high trade deficit is one of the factors that dragged the rupee to below 70 levels.

Food inflation slowed to 0.29 per cent from a year earlier, against 1.37 per cent in July.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast August annual increase in the consumer price index at 3.86 per cent.

The data comes at a time the rupee hit record lows amid weakness in emerging market peers and the domestic equity markets are struggling with fund outflows. Besides, a continued surge in crude oil prices has fuelled concerns on the current account deficit among investors.

The cabinet has approved a new procurement policy under which one scheme will focus on compensating oilseeds farmers if rates fall below the MSP, and another will allow states to rope in private players for procurement, sources said