Inflation turns negative, drops to -1.61%

Inflation turned negative 1.61 for the first time in thirty years but the prices of food items like fruit and vegetables, cereals and oil were still higher than last year.

With the wholesale price index shrinking to 232.7 points for the week ended June 6 from 236.5 in the same week a year ago, India possibly is the only major economy moving into a deflationary zone though the European region is near zero level due to recessionary pressures.

The stock markets immediately welcomed the development and jumped by about 200 points from the morning lows as market analysts expect this to help further ease the monetary policy restrictions and pave the way for cut in banks' lending rates.

Releasing the wholesale price data, the government said in a statement that "the annual rate of inflation, calculated on a point to point to basis stood at minus 1.61 per cent for the week ended June 6 as compared to 0.13 per cent for the previous week and 11.66 per cent during the corresponding week of previous year".

However, food articles were costlier by 8.7 per cent from the comparable week last year as pulses moved up 17 per cent, cereals 13.5 per cent, and fruit and vegetables 10 per cent.

The dip was on account of a fall in fuel prices as international crude oil is now ruling around 70 dollars a barrel against over 140 dollars a barrel during the year-ago period.

Negative inflation not a concern

A fall in India's wholesale price index is not a cause for concern, the deputy head of Planning Commission said on Thursday. "Absolutely no cause of concern whatsoever. We knew that it was going to appear negative for a while," Montek Singh Ahluwalia said

Government data showed the wholesale price index fell 1.61 per cent in the 12 months to June 6, its first drop in at least three decades, and compared with the previous week's annual rise of 0.13 per cent.

India largest investor in UK after the US

After United States, India with 108 projects is the largest investor in United Kingdom in terms of number in 2008-09 as against 75 in the previous year.

"Investment from India increased across a range of sectors including IT, Life Sciences and advanced engineering sectors and was a mix of acquisitions and expansions," a UK Trade & Investment, UK Government's international business development organisation, release said.

UKIT, however, did not mention the quantum of investment.

HCL's euro 450 million buy of Axon, ONGC's more than euro one billion acquisition of Imperial Energy and Dr Reddy's purchase of a clinical trials unit were the prominent investments from Indian side in UK last fiscal.

Biocon established its European headquarters and GTL Europe opened four new offices in UK during the year, the release said.

India replaced Japan as the largest investor from Asia in 2008-09 from the seventh spot last fiscal.

The US, however, continued to top the list in FY'09 as well with 621 foreign direct investment projects flagging of base in UK. In 2007-08, it was 478.

Overall, recording an 11 per cent increase over the previous fiscal, UK had received 1,744 investment projects from 53 countries during FY'09.

Online Investment Secrets and Tips

When it comes to online investment tips, everyone could benefit from tips. Most people are new to online investing, and are not very familiar with the way things work. The online world of investing can be cruel, but also very rewarding. When it comes to investing online, the tips you will

find below are designed to help you make the most out of your experience.

The first thing to do with online investing is to start small. If you are new to this method of investing, do not put your entire life savings into an online account. Instead, start with a smaller sum, which should be easier to handle and keep track of. Once you feel confident enough, you can decide to add more money to your online account.

Once they are online, many investors tend to concentrate on stocks, specifically larger, more domestic ones. Most online investment tips note that while these stocks should make up part of your portfolio, they should not be all of it. Also make sure you take into account your time horizon and risk tolerance to develop a well balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, and cash.

When it comes to mutual funds, most investors are into them for a reason. Most investors do not have the expertise to make their own investment calls on individual stocks. They are also too preoccupied by work and other demands to spend every minute watching the market. You should keep your mutual funds and it will probably be an unwise move for you to cash out your long term fund holdings.

Other online investment tips note that costs may not always be obvious. Even if online broker costs are somewhat lower than those of full service brokers, they can still add up, even if you do a lot of buying and selling. Online broker firms also like to impose a number of other fees and charges that should be studied closely.

When it comes to orders, you should make them work for you. If you plan on doing your own investing, you will need to learn how to use the tools that are available in order to avoid potentially steep losses and to buy or sell a stock at effective prices. This way, you get a good decent return on your investment. Many information on creating own investing you can find on theHYIPs.net

Tips for Investment in India

Many Indian citizens come to the USA to settle here with their family members on family based immigration visa. They will stay for a reasonably long time here as they have their green cards and are allowed to stay in the USA as permanent residents. Such persons

have to invest their money in India prior to coming here. It may not be advisable to bring their entire saving here along with them as that will substantially reduce their capital in the ratio of around 40, based on current conversion rate of US $. Moreover, the interest rate in India is much higher as compared to the USA and the money invested in India can fetch good interest rate to all such people.

There are many schemes available for the investment in India, both long term and short term. The persons living India for a long time have to invest their money, mostly in long term schemes so that they have not to bother for such investments, while they stay here. Also, such schemes have to be safe as such people are old and fall in senior citizens category and will not have any opportunity of earning in future. The suggested investment schemes are as follows.

1. Government schemes- There are many government schemes for investment in India that are very safe and pay around 8% of cumulative interest. RBI bonds, Railway bonds are such schemes. These schemes are for the period of 5 years and can be cumulative or non cumulative. If you are going to need the interest income in your hands, then, make investment in non Cumulative scheme, otherwise opt for cumulative scheme, where the interest earned by you is also reinvested, making your basic amount to grow. Some of the nationalized banks have recently started paying interest of 9% on fixed deposits for the period of 5 years. Such schemes are the best in terms of safety, being controlled by the government. However, it is difficult to withdraw money from such schemes during investment period without heavy loss of interest. It is suggested to invest around 50% of your capital in such schemes.