Economy
Data recap: Spending survey, Q3 results, NSE
Summary
- News and developments from the week gone by, through numbers and charts
Every Friday, Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights, complete with easy-to-read charts, to help you delve deeper into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by. The much-awaited Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) gave a snapshot of Indians’ spending habits after a gap of 11 years. Corporate India showed a mixed report card in the third quarter of the financial year 2023-24, with divergent trends in profit and revenue growth.
Expense tracker
The share of food in rural Indians’ household budgets slid below the 50% mark in the household consumption survey held in 2022-23. The previous survey, held in 2011-12, had recorded food’s share in rural spending at 53%. Overall, the survey showed a rise in per capita consumer spending in urban areas to ₹3,773 per month from ₹1,430 in 2011-12 (not inflation-adjusted). However, some of the rise is likely to have come from the change in methodology as well, a Plain Facts article explained.
Costly affair
Aircraft rentals have surged in response to high demand over the past year, with any given available plane attracting interest from four to five carriers, Mint reported. According to Ishka, a UK-based aviation research firm, the average market lease rate for a 10-year-old Airbus A320 increased by 14% over a 12-month period to $177,000 per month in January. The lease rate for a used Boeing B737-800 rose by 13% to $194,000 per month. The surge coincides with a global shortage of aircraft in the industry.
Signal boost
₹45,000 crore: That's the amount of fund-raise for which cash-strapped Vodafone Idea got approval from its board of directors this week. The plan includes a ₹20,000-crore equity-based fund-raise from existing investors, for which the company plans to meet shareholders on 2 April. After their approval, the telco expects to complete the process by June. Later, Vodafone-Idea will further look to raise debt—taking the total amount of funding up to ₹45,000 crore, the company said.
Trimming debt
After a two-year halt on new borrowings by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Centre is now considering prepaying a portion of its ₹3.4-trillion debt, a Mint report said. The move would enable NHAI to allocate more capital towards enhancing India’s highway network and reduce interest payments. Several of NHAI’s bond issues, including the last one in 2021-22, are set to mature between 2025 and 2030. The objective is to prioritize the repayment of these bonds before considering early exits for longer-term bondholders.
Earnings report
The December-quarter results of a Mint sample of 3,478 BSE-listed companies showed divergent trends in revenue and profit growth. While revenues expanded 8.4% on a year-on-year basis, the fastest in three quarters, profit growth slacked to 31%, the slowest in 2023-24 so far. Yet, the revenue growth is subdued as compared to four quarters ago (18%), and profits are swelling due to reduced input cost pressures. Unlike the last few quarters, companies came out of the shadow of a fast-growing banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector.
Capex track
76%: That's the percentage of the full-year capital expenditure target that the Centre had spent till 31 January, with two months to go, data released on Thursday showed. According to the latest Union Budget, the Centre estimates a capex of ₹9.5 trillion in 2023-24. Earlier this week, a government source had told Mint, requesting anonymity, that the government was on track to achieve its capital expenditure target and was holding a modest cash balance to meet its commitments for the final three months of the fiscal year.
Marching ahead
In January, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) overtook the NCDEX to become India’s second-largest commodity derivatives platform more than five years after it launched bullion futures. MCX remains the No. 1 in this list by far. The NSE recorded commodity derivatives volumes of ₹38,418 crore in January, surpassing NCDEX's ₹12,509 crore, data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India showed. Nearly all of NSE’s turnover in January came from options on crude oil futures contracts.
Chart of the week: Political sides
Nearly 44% of 12,544 urban Indians interviewed in the latest edition of the YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey showed signs of intense passion towards one or the other political party. Such ‘strong partisans’ are also more likely to engage in political debates online.
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