
Data recap: SVB crisis, Meta job cuts, exports

Summary
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 byEvery 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 US banking crisis rocked markets everywhere this week, while Indian banks opened new dollar accounts in Gujarat’s GIFT city to help affected startups that had banked with Silicon Valley Bank. Job cuts made headlines once more with Meta, and Adani firms repaid debts ahead of the deadline.
Inflation Swing

Retail inflation declined marginally in February to 6.4%, but that was due to a favourable base effect, even as price pressures continued to rise sequentially. The consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.2% month-on-month, following a 0.5% increase in January. A surge in food and beverage inflation, which dominates the CPI basket, has kept price pressures high. In the coming months, inflation is expected to ease due to further base effect.
Bankers Tense

Swiss lender Credit Suisse’s announcement on Thursday that it would borrow $53.7 billion from the Swiss central bank to improve its financial situation helped the markets take a breather. Stock markets across the world, in particular banking stocks, have been tense this week after banking failures in the US, followed by worries about Credit Suisse and Comerica Bank. Indian equities snapped five days of losses to end up 0.1% on Thursday.
Rescue Team
97%: That’s the share of deposits in the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) that have capital of over $250,000—the limit that is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the US. Many Indian startups had banked with SVB and could be at risk. To help the affected startups, at least three Indian banks—Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ICICI Bank—and the Indian unit of HSBC got going to open new dollar accounts for them in Gujarat’s GIFT City.
Making the Move

Jobs are the most common reason for men in India to migrate, with 39% of male migrants living in rural India and 56% in urban India having done so for work-related reasons, shows a Mint analysis of National Sample Survey data. Among women, only 2% had migrated for work-related reasons, reflecting India’s low female labour force participation. The primary reason is marriage, with nearly nine out of 10 women migrating to their current location for this reason.
Job Cuts

On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans of layoffs of around 10,000 employees. Zuckerberg also mentioned that the company will be hiring for nearly 5,000 positions. This is the second wave of layoffs at the company after 11,000 layoffs were announced in November of last year. Meta’s latest layoffs are the latest in a long line of job cuts at some of the world’s largest technology companies.
Adani’s Debts
$2.65 billion: That’s the amount of loans that the Adani group said it had repaid ahead of its 31 March target. This includes $2.15 billion of margin-linked, share-backed funding and a $500-million loan facility for acquiring Ambuja Cements Ltd. The conglomerate has been under fire since a damning report by US-based Hindenburg Research about its practices in January, and has had to take these steps to regain investor trust.
Exports Misery

India’s merchandise exports declined by 8.8% year-on-year to $33.9 billion in February, data released by the Union commerce ministry this week showed. This was the third contraction in five months after a long stretch of expansion. A demand slowdown in major markets for Indian exports, such as the US and Europe, has led to this reversal of trends. Meanwhile, India’s imports also shrank by 8.2% to an 18-month low of $51.3 billion.
Chart of the Week: Gender Test

Several companies aren’t meeting the regulatory requirement of having at least one woman on their boards. Data from the corporate affairs ministry shows that just around 30% of the 303,400 new directors who have been registered in Indian firms since April have been women.
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