China's GDP declines

This is the first time after 2008 when recession was at its peak that China's GDP declined sharply. This has stopped the growth engine which from the past few years was not looking to slow down. In the last quarter of 2011, China's GDP fell down to 8.9%. The economy which was consistently growing with double digit GDP (except 2011) recently has now declined sharply. Still 8.9% growth rate is not bad. Countries love to have growth rate of 8.9% but what worries China is the steep decline.

What worries more is JP Morgan forecasting that it will further decline to 7.2% in the current quarter.  Among the world's major economies, Europe is widely forecast to slump into recession this year, Japan to limp along at growth of roughly 1% and the U.S. to be lucky if it reaches 3% growth.

India's Weakening Economy

We are so confident about the fundamentals of Indian financial economy that we are not ready to believe that situation is very bad. Politicians, economists, analysts terming it as temporary phase as they are over confident about the economy but they do not see that this temporary phase has taken one year now. Everytime I  see news channel, people claim that situation is not bad. They need to open their eyes. Don't they see that bloody dollar is now trading at more than fifty four (54) rupees. Don't they see that India's industrial output is -5%.

If you cannot see this, you don't deserve to be the economist. US multinational companies who have operations units in India are gaining the most. Company who was spending 1000 dollars previously, now have to spend only 850 dollars on India operations. India need more dollars. Policy makers should take this situation seriously otherwise there will be time when you will hear that after Greece its India who is defaulting and recession will grip us as well. They (US) have come out of the situation very well and now learned their lessons but our leaders are so corrupt that we cannot handle such situations.

Common Man's Dos and Don'ts in Recession

We have seen the 2007 to 2009 period when economy was in recession.We saw people struggled to save their jobs in that market scenario. The service companies were not getting projects. The products company were not able to sell the products. The money generation factor for an individual was either bare minimal or going down at a constant pace. Now the air has started again. How Can a common man survive this recession? What should be their DOs and Donts??

Recession or not, one should be very much optimistic and never give up hope. However, here are some ideas to cope up with recession.

1. Save money. Do not do over expenditure. Do not go on shopping spree. Do not waste money in having exotic luncheons and dinners. Save money by using less power and waste less water. Wasting resources such as power and water have many adverse effects. One of it is your bill. Try to spend money in a control manner. Plan out your budget and stick to it. Until some unforeseen situation occurs.


2. One should always buy a health insurance policy. Even if you already have a policy, confirm that it is updated and you have paid the premium due.

3. Postpone your heavy expenditures. If you are planning to buy a car or that dream house, wait for a while. There might be chances that these things will go cheap in future as there will shortage of demand.    

4. Be optimistic. Do not lose heart if you are not getting a raise or even if your salary is cut down. Be optimistic that things will change and things WILL surely change over time.  

5. Learn more. One of the major effects of recession is that it has increased the competition. Now for one job several people are contesting. You might lose job because you are not keeping with time. Be ahead in knowledge. Try to read and learn. Give extra effort at office. try to get recognized in office. Whenever you get time. Read read read and read.
 

Just know that Change is the only permanent thing. Everything else is volatile.

Another Recession on the Cards?

5th August 2011: According to recent economic situation in US, the probability of recession has been doubled. The chances are that there will be recession is 10% and it may come in the next year has 35% chances. According to latest reports, US economy is not growing. Global stock markets tumbled on Friday due to fear that US is heading towards another recession. Already European debt crisis is worsening. No matter how much bailout packages has been announced, the economy is not recovering at all.

What caused these reports is the latest findings of some key economic indicators like consumer spending, manufacturing, job cuts and GDP. If US economy continues to perform like this, we are not far from a 2008 situation.

The effect of fears of US recession also impacted Indian stock market as the sensex closed 387 points lower than the last day. Lets hope we all survive these tough times.

Recession of Rains

As the world economy is now crippled by recession even God has become merciless. The rain God itself is affected by recession. This year in north India the rains are coming in bits and pieces. I have never seen such kind of monsoon season. It comes for 5 minutes and then whole week there are no signs of it. Imagine the condition of farmers who depend on these rains to produce agricultural products. I have seen pictures in newspapers, people praying for rain but all in vein.

Please God show some mercy and give us the beautiful season of monsoon with lots of rains as it was in previous years.

Life at Work

Life at work can be a battle field and you need to be equipped not just with skills, but also a spinal cord made of steel. There's a lot of stress out there and in these times of recession, you have to be twice as good to keep your head afloat.

Just a random thought.