July per-credit card spending slips 2.4% Y-o-Y, issuances outpace transaction

New Reserve Bank of India lending rules increase funding costs for local proprietary traders. These changes require 100% collateral for bank guarantees, impacting domestic firms significantly. Foreign trading majors, however, can access cheaper overseas funding sources. This situation may allow foreign firms to capture a larger domestic market share. Domestic traders face a disadvantage compared…

Oil erased a decline as Yemen’s Houthi militant group issued a fresh threat against Middle East shipping, tempering optimism over US-Iran talks.

A focus on core rather than headline inflation goes against the Reserve Bank of India’s inflation-targeting mandate. This is likely to cost the country dearly. Perhaps the MPC needs a reminder of the advice given by one former RBI governor to another.