Economy News Notes

Corporate India is likely to witness a slowdown in hiring activity in the last quarter of this year, owing to the ongoing global economic uncertainty
there has been a dip of 3 points in the employment outlook index, which stood at 71 for the October-December quarter against from 74 in the previous quarter.
From sectoral perspective too, 6 out of the 8 sectors reported negative growth in the index, with the tech industry bearing the brunt.
The IT sector witnessed 6-point drop followed by engineering (4 points). Sales, marketing and customer service keeps its top position at 79 points despite a 3-point fall.
A city-wise analysis shows that Delhi and Bangalore each have witnessed a 9-point drop in employment sentiment, while Pune witnessed an 8-point drop and Chennai 7 points fall.
Interestingly, for Kolkata the employment index rose by 5 points.

India has been awarded the right to hold the World Steel Conference in October next.
The governing body of the World Steel Association, representing 170 producers and accounting for 85 per cent of world steel production, has decided to give the rights to hold the World Steel Conference in India from October 8 to 12 next year
Indian steel industry had grown multi-fold from a production of about two million tonnes of crude steel in 1950-51 to nearly 70 million tonnes in 2010-11.
The member steel companies representing host country committee from India include JSW Steel, SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Tata Steel, Essar Steel and JSW Ispat Steel.

Anand Sharma on Friday announced a slew of sops including extending the Market Linked Focus Product Scheme (MLFPS) for exports and 2 per cent duty credit for exports to the U.S. and European Union from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.
Mr. Sharma said the government had adopted a multi-pronged strategy by providing a stable policy regime, adopting a conscious market diversification plan and providing additional support to sectors hit badly by the global recession.

It has now been decided to increase the value per transaction from $500 to $3,000 for export-related remittances received through Online Payment Gateway Service Providers (OPGSPS), the RBI said
This is the second benefit that exporters got during this week.

Standard and Poor's on Frdiay downgraded Spain's credit rating, citing sky-high private debt, weak economic growth and towering unemployment.
‘AA-minus' from ‘AA' with a negative outlook pointing to a risk of more cuts ahead.
Spain's short-term ratings were confirmed at ‘A-1-plus'.

the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has supported the RBI's monetary tightening strategy for taming inflation.
In economies where such overheating pressures remain high, inflation remains above target and inflation expectations have continued to rise, such as in China, India, and Korea, the current pace of monetary tightening remains appropriate
The RBI had already hiked interest rates 12 times since March, 2010, to control inflation
commodity price rise had fed to generalised inflation in countries such as Hong Kong special administrative region, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand.
The multilateral lending agency projected that GDP growth across Asia would average 6.25 per cent in 2011.