India has seen a perfect storm in first nine months of 2018, created by oil prices, interest rates, rupee, banking liquidity, credit events like ILFS and FII selling.
With some luck and some deft management, now economy is in a reasonable shape.
Oil prices are down and are likely to remain stable.
The rupee is near its fair value.
It will depreciate but at a reasonable pace.
Interest rates have declined 75 basis points and are likely to remain range-bound.
FIIs have turned from consistent sellers to occasional sellers.
Domestic flows have slowed down, but there isnt much supply pressure.
Liquidity is still short, though open-market operations and forex-market intervention can bring that to a neutral level.
The ILFS event has been contained.
And, most importantly, market valuations have corrected sharply and are around their historical average.The market has a near-term concern on two factors.
There is a distinct shift towards populist policies like farm-loan waiver to win elections.
This, if applied judiciously and funded from monetisation of assets, can still be withstood by economy.
But, if we go back to fiscal profligacy of past, it could affect long-term growth.
While demonetisation and GST have helped expand tax base, tax revenue growth is not high enough to support fiscal profligacy.
India has brought persistent double-digit inflation to a low single digit with huge effort of government and RBI.
That can be lost in no time if there is fiscal profligacy.
Private investment has remained subdued due to excess leverage of past.
High real interest rates, limited transmission of credit due to PCA (Prompt Corrective Action) framework on state-run banks and tight liquidity also weighed on private investment.
Fiscal profligacy will crowd out private investment.
The market so far has taken finance ministers assurance on maintaining fiscal discipline.The market will be closely watching elections.
At current level, it is pricing in a stable government.
GST, RERA, insolvency process, digitisation of economy, financial inclusion through Jan Dhan accounts, a dramatic improvement in ease of doing business ranking, reduction in leakages of subsides through direct benefit transfer and Aadhar linkages, and a massive build up in infrastructure from roads to waterways have helped build a strong platform for economy to accelerate growth.The US-China tariff war is a godsend opportunity to develop Indias manufacturing base.
In 1978, India was ahead of China in per-capita GDP.
China has since become manufacturer of world.
We missed bus.
Due to tariff war, manufacturers are looking to shift base from China.
If we can push large buyers of Chinese goods in US, then we can develop our manufacturing base.
To achieve that, we need a stable government focussed on economic growth and not one fighting for survival.The market will get impacted in short term by many factors including global developments.
However, in long-term, fundamentals will prevail.
How economy grows and how companies increase profit will determine where our markets will reach.
In a world where countries are fiercely competing with each other, it is extremely important to have a political leadership which is farsighted and rigorously pushes Indias economic interest.
While elections matter far more on result day and not much over tenure of government as fundamentals take over, it is critical to ensure that momentum isnt lost.A fiscally prudent budget and reforms-oriented government is necessary for maintaining or increasing pace of growth.
The market will be praying for both in days to come.(The author is Managing Director, Kotak Mutual Fund.)