G20 Sees More Action, China Moves to Boost Economy

China launched a huge stimulus plan worth nearly $600 billion, kicking off what could be a round of big spending or interest rate cuts by leading economies to stave off a recession in many countries.
In Brazil, finance ministers and central bank governors representing 90 percent of the world's economy said they would take "all necessary measures" to get financial markets back to normal and counter the backlash of the credit crisis.
Many developed economies are now facing a contraction next year after lending from banks suddenly dried up, and newer powers such as China have been caught up in the domino effect.
World leaders meet next weekend to discuss precisely what measures they need to work out in coming months, and how much more say emerging economies will have over global finance.

Read more at CNBC

World economies to decline in 2009: IMF

WASHINGTON: Barely 10 days ahead of the Summit of the Group-20 here called by President George Bush, IMF has revised its global economic outlook and forecast that advanced economies would slip into recession
next year, while the growth rate of Asian nations would come down. In its World Outlook Report published today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the global growth would slow down by 0.2 per cent in 2008 and 0.9 per cent in 2009, thus leaving the revised growth figures at 3.7 per cent for this year and 2.2 per cent for the next. The outlook is not too different for India as well, since IMF sees the country's economic growth going down to 6.3 per cent, 0.6 per cent less than what it had projected last month, as the financial meltdown envelops the globe.

Read more at The Economic Times

Markets offer early warning signals

India now has the distinction of being one of the rare countries to introduce new derivatives markets this year, at a time when most countries are clamping down with bans or more regulations.

Derivatives, especially the exotic kinds, have become a bad name across the world. India, too, has had its share of problems with over-the-counter (OTC) forex derivatives. One good outcome of all this is that the case for exchange-traded derivatives has only become stronger vis-a-vis OTC markets. It has become increasingly clearer to more policymakers and market participants that wherever standardization is possible, a derivatives contract must be listed on an exchange to avail of the benefits of transparency and the elimination of credit risk through centralized clearing and settlement.

Read more at Livemint

Forex reserves up $1.43bn at $199.18bn

Foreign exchange reserves increased $1.43 billion to $199.18 billion during the week ended March 30, according to the weekly supplement released by the RBI today.

Foreign currency assets rose $1.53 billion to $191.9 billion. While gold reserves declined $99 million to $6.78 billion, SDRs were unchanged at $2 million.

The Reserve Tranche Position with the IMF was unchanged at $469 million.