Business corner

SBI raises interest rate on FDs by up to 0.1%

New Delhi: Ahead of RBI’s monetary policy announcement, the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has hiked interest rate on fixed deposits by up to 0.1 per cent on select maturities, a move likely to be followed by other banks.  The increase in interest rate is effective July 30, according to notification on the bank’s website. Fixed deposit of maturity one year to less than two years would earn 6.40 per cent, 5 basis points higher than previous rate. Interest rate on fixed deposit of longer tenure has been raised by 10 basis points. For example, term deposit between three years and less than five years will earn 6.80 per cent as against 6.70 per cent while 5-10 years will get the depositors 6.85 per cent as compared to 6.75 per cent earlier. However, the bank has retained interest rates on term deposits of less than one year maturities. The bank had last revised its interest rate on May 28, ahead of second bi-monthly monetary policy for 2018-19 announced on June 6. RBI had increased the benchmark short-term lending rate (repo rate) by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent in its last policy review in June on inflationary concerns. The retail inflation, which is factored in by the MPC, spiked to a five-month high of 5 per cent in June on costlier fuel. The government has mandated the Reserve Bank to keep inflation at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent).

GDP may moderate to 7.2% in 2nd half of 2018: Report

New Delhi: The Indian economy is likely to have witnessed solid economic growth in the April-June quarter but leading indicators suggest a slowdown in the coming months, says a Nomura report. According to the global financial services major, India’s economic recovery has peaked and growth rates are likely to get constrained in the second half of this year. “Our proprietary indicators suggest the inflection point for the cyclical recovery may just be around the corner,” Nomura said in a research note. India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at the fastest pace in seven quarters at 7.7 per cent in January-March quarter on robust performance by manufacturing and service sectors as well as good farm output. The report said tighter financial conditions, slowing global growth and adverse terms of trade will start to constrain growth in second half of 2018. Nomura expects GDP growth to peak in April-June quarter and then moderate to 7.2 per cent in the second half of 2018 from around 7.8 per cent in first half. On Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy stance, the report said the current macroeconomic conditions merit a 25 bps rate hike in the forthcoming policy meeting on August 1.

Rs 830 cr recovered from drug firms for overcharging: Govt

New Delhi: Government has recovered Rs 830 crore as fine from pharmaceutical companies for overcharging till May 2018, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Since the inception of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) till May this year, 1,794 demand notices were issued to drug companies for overcharging patients, Union Minister Mansukh L Mandaviya said in a written reply to the House. “Demand notices have been issued for a total amount of Rs 6,058.07 crore. Amount to the tune of Rs 829.88 crore has been recovered from the companies...in overcharging cases,” he added. In a separate reply, the minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers said exports of generic drugs in 2017-18 stood at USD 12.9 billion. The global generic market in the same period stood at USD 302 billion.