REFUGEES’ FLIGHTS CANCELLED
CHINA HIKES DEFENCE BUDGET TO $209 BILLION
San Diego: More than 260 refugees who were vetted, approved and booked to come to the United States have had their flights cancelled by the State Department
over the past two weeks because they do not qualify under restrictions imposed by Donald Trump, refugee resettlement agencies say. —
Beijing: China on Friday hiked its defence budget for the first time to more than $200 billion, over three times higher than that of India, maintaining a single-digit growth for the sixth consecutive year with a 6.8 per cent increase in 2021.
The hike in defence spending was announced by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the opening day of the National People’s Congress, China’s Parliament, amidst a military standoff with India in eastern Ladakh and growing political and military tensions with the United States.
This year’s planned defence spending will be about 1.35 trillion yuan (about $209 billion), state-run Xinhua news agency reported, adding that the annual defence budget maintains a single-digit growth for a sixth consecutive year.
China’s defence budget is about one quarter of the US figure, which is
$740.5 billion for the 2021 fiscal year, it said. Friday's increase is over three times higher than India’s defence budget of about $65.7 billion (including pensions). Last year, China allocated 1.268 trillion yuan (about $196.44 billion), according to the staterun Global Times.
In his 35-page work report outlining China's achievements in 2020 and tasks for 2021, premier Li described last year as a “major success” for the armed forces without mentioning China moving over
60,000 well-armed troops who were mobilised for annual exercises, to contentious areas like Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh, prompting India to match the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) mobilisation which led to an over eight-month long standoff. —
With the gold price having fallen Rs 12,000 per 10 gm from their record-high levels in August, the bullion channel is stocking up physical gold for customers who are waiting for some stability in prices to make purchases.
India had seen gold jewellery demand falling to a multi-year low of 315 tonnes in 2020. The first three quarters of the calendar year was a wash-out in terms of gold demand.
However, the pent-up demand is likely to trigger buying with the supportive movement in prices. Gold prices have dropped to Rs 44,280 per 10 gm in the Multi Commodity Exchange from the highs of Rs 56,590 in August— losing more than Rs 12,000 per 10 gm.
The correction has led to some improvement in demand, but not yet at the customer level. The gold channels have been stocking up the yellow metal expecting the demand to rise once the wedding season starts and vaccination picks up. This has been evident from the gold import figures.
Gold imports had risen
72 per cent in volume terms and 154 per cent in value terms in January. As per the latest trade figures, gold imports are up
124 per cent in value terms in February as well.
“Gold imports in 2020 had fallen substantially as the channel was blocked due to the lockdown. In the past few months there has been some re-stocking happening within the channel for replenishment purposes,” said Ashish Pethe, chairman of the All-India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council. Further, the channel had stayed away from replenishment of stocks at higher price levels.
According to Pethe, investment demand is still robust while jewellery demand is yet to pick up. Investment demand had in fact started picking up in the fourth quarter of 2020 when the consumption was up by 8 per cent compared to Q4 2019.
According to Amit Bhandari, founder of Tezbid.com, for investors the recent downturn in prices offers a good entry point, preferably with a long holding period.
“Inflation is expected to be higher going forward and gold offers a good hedge against rising prices—the speculation on bitcoin is a good example of the kind of froth/asset bubbles building up in financial markets. Some allocation to gold is prudent,” said Bhandari.
However, jewellery buyers are still waiting for the right time. “Jewellery customers are still in a waitand-watch mode and are looking for stability in prices. Once prices stabilise, demand will pickup. Further, festivals like Gudi Padwa and Akshaya Tritiya are coming up and the wedding season too will start soon. This year, we might see more number of weddings happening. Hence the demand is expected to recover to 2019 levels,” said Pethe.
“The buoyancy in the market is tangible. People are waiting and watching with the intent to buy. The duty cut and gold price fall are favourable factors for buying,” said Somasundaram P.R., managing director, World Gold Council India.