PDF Ebook Global Financial Crisis and Key Risks: Impact on India and Asia
The turmoil in the international financial markets of advanced economies, that started around mid-2007, has exacerbated substantially since August 2008. The financial market crisis has led to the collapse of major financial institutions and is now beginning to impact the real economy in the advanced economies. As this crisis is unfolding, credit markets appear to be drying up in the developed world. With the substantive increase in financial globalisation, how much will these developments affect India and other Asian emerging market economies (EMEs)?
India, like most other emerging market economies, has so far, not been seriously affected by the recent financial turmoil in developed economies. In my remarks today, I will, first, briefly set out reasons for the relative resilience shown by the Indian economy to the ongoing international financial markets’ crisis. This will be followed by some discussion of the impact till date on the Indian economy and the likely implications in the near future. I then outline our approach to the management of the exposures of the Indian financial sector entities to the collapse of major financial institutions in the US. Orderly conditions have been maintained in the domestic financial markets, which is attributable to a range of instruments available with the monetary authority to manage a variety of situations. Finally, I would briefly set out my thinking on the extent of vulnerability of the Asian economies, in general, to the global financial market crisis.
The Indian economy is now a relatively open economy, despite the capital account not being fully open. The current account, as measured by the sum of current receipts and current payments, amounted to about 53 per cent of GDP in 2007-08, up from about 19 per cent of GDP in 1991. Similarly, on the capital account, the sum of gross capital inflows and outflows increased from 12 per cent of GDP in 1990-91 to around 64 per cent in 2007-081. With this degree of openness, developments in international markets are bound to affect the Indian economy and policy makers have to be vigilant in order to minimize the impact of adverse international developments on the domestic economy.
The relatively limited impact of the ongoing turmoil in financial markets of the advanced economies in the Indian financial markets, and more generally the Indian economy, needs to be assessed in this context. Whereas the Indian current account has been opened fully, though gradually, over the 1990s, a more calibrated approach has been followed to the opening of the capital account and to opening up of the financial sector. This approach is consistent with the weight of the available empirical evidence with regard to the benefits that may be gained from capital account liberalisation for acceleration of economic growth, particularly in emerging market economies. The evidence suggests that the greatest gains are obtained from the opening to foreign direct investment, followed by portfolio equity investment. The benefits emanating from external debt flows have been found to be more questionable until greater domestic financial market development has taken place (Henry, 2007; Prasad, Rajan and Subramanian, 2007).
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PDF Ebook Global Financial Crisis and Key Risks: Impact on India and Asia
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