India's GDP expanded at fastest pace in 18 years (9.4% growth)

[TexasLawyer]

Source: MarketWatch

India's GDP expanded at fastest pace in 18 years
Annual GDP up 9.4%, but growth could moderate this year

By V. Phani Kumar
Last Update: 4:21 AM ET May 31, 2007

MUMBAI (MarketWatch) -- India's economy expanded at its fastest pace in 18 years during the financial year ended March 31, led by a robust performance of its manufacturing and services sectors, according to official data released Thursday. But economists expect growth to moderate this year due to higher interest rates and a strong rupee, said economists.

Data released by the Central Statistical Organization showed the gross domestic product grew at 9.4% for the year, up from 9% in the previous year.

"The data is surely an indicator that the economy is moving in a sustainable fashion towards a higher growth trajectory. It sends a positive signal to the international community and should attract more capital and foreign fund inflows," said Rupa Rege Nitsure, the chief economist at state-owned Bank of Baroda.

<snip>


Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/indias-economy-grows-best-pace/story.aspx?guid=%7BDD148070-EA3F-4E40-AAEB-A9B6A96868F4%7D

[The2ndWheel]

1. "the economy is moving in a sustainable fashion"

Since I'm neither an economist or state-owned, I don't think I understand what sustainable means anymore.

[Nickster]

4. That means that India believes they can squeeze a few more jobs out of America to keep their

economy rolling along nicely for awhile. At least Dubya is creating jobs somewhere!

[dave_p]

8. Yeah, begrudge them every cent they work for

Do you really think India relies entirely on US offshoring? India more than doubled its GDP in 1985-2000 by breaking into new markets and investing in technology, and now it's using its know-how and compettitive advantage to build on that. Can't Americans ever welcome anyone working themselves out of poverty without claiming that it's all at their expense? Way to rebuild the international goodwill destroyed by BushCo.

[The2ndWheel]

9. Well it doesn't come from nowhere

"Can't Americans ever welcome anyone working themselves out of poverty without claiming that it's all at their expense?"

It does come at someone's expense, but that's the price you pay for a global society. It's really no different than just using America by itself as an example. For there to be a "middle" class, there has to be a "lower" class, meaning poverty must exist. You can alleviate a portion of that through taxes and social programs, but those have to be paid for too. You could raise wages, but that comes at the expense of the bottom line. You could increase the bottom line, but that comes at the expense of either the people working or the environment.

In a global economy, if a country with over a billion people wants a middle class(and we have two countries fitting that description), then it will come at the expense of someone, somewhere. India(if nation-states even exist anymore) has as much right to any of it as American, which is why the cycle won't stop.

[Nickster]

16. Well, I'm sure the 140 billion dollars and 3 million jobs didn't hurt them any. I'm all for them

working their way out of poverty, the Indian citizens are just taking advantage of the situation and I can't blame them at all for that. But I do blame the Indian corporations that have minimal worker safety rules and allow corporations to feed off the desperation there and the American corporations that receive my tax dollars for taking American jobs away. I blame the corporations that continue to use the insane trade policies to keep a knife swinging over my head to keep me in fear of losing my job and gladly accepting the minimal wage increases because someone overseas can work for much less.

It's a very complex issue of course, but I'm not blind to the fact that our trade policies need to change before we're the third world country. Do you think any other nation in the world if the situations were reversed would hand over as much treasure as we have to let us build up a middle class? Or would they build up some kind of protections for their own people?

Who's going to help the Indian middle class when their wages are "too high" and their jobs are outsourced to China?

[gravity]

14. It's solid economic growth

that will not likely decline anytime soon.

It's different from an oil producing country having GDP growth because the price of oil increased that year.

[Daphne08]

2. India's Middle Class is growing. n/t

[rfranklin]

3. while ours is shrinking...

of course, over there middle class is defined as $15,000 per year income.

ON EDIT: $1800 actually puts you in the middle class according to TIME magazine.

[fasttense]

5. Yeah but our ubber rich is getting richer. So, we will all get trickled down on soon.

:sarcasm:

[DBoon]

6. Now explain how this will help the majority poor in India

and not just the small number of well-off high-tech entrepeneurs and professionals

[dave_p]

7. The same way it helped the majority in America?

I haven't seen much evidence of that being an egalitarian society either.

Enough of this "One law for us". Growth is good for poor countries. This should have happened half a century ago.

[pampango]

10. Good for them. Twenty years ago, I could not imagine reading

articles about the rapid growth of the Indian and Chinese economies. Since they have a third of the world's population, this is helping to greatly reduce world poverty.

[varun]

11. Indians should be blaming the West

for the massive looting they (British) carried out during the 200 years of colonization.

And they are not stealing American money - they are earning it.

[fedsron2us]

12. Umm... the US ceased to be part of the British Empire in 1776

over 171 years before Indian Independence. Can't see how they controlled this 'massive looting'.

[David__77]

13. Correct!

I'm tired of those who are blaming the developing countries for developing! That's precisely what is needed after centuries of oppression and exploitation.

[pork medley]

15. its UN development rank has also dropped from 127 to 124 in the past 18 yrs

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. I just read where the U.S. GDP is at its lowest level since end of '02.

I believe it was at 0.6 percent for the first quarter of this year. Nice to know India's doing a better job of managing their economy than the U.S. is. But it's hard work to screw up an economy as badly as ours has been. Not just any leader is up to the task.


On edit: Link to article I mentioned above.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/31/news/economy/gdp/index.htm?postversion=2007053112

[gravity]

18. Well GDP growth is

Our GDP is higher than ever though

[Lone_Star_Dem]

19. Yes, I miss worded, but you've expressed what I intended to say.

I messed it up when it was too long and I cut some of it out and reworded. Thank you for making it more clear for everyone.