Corporate Grapevine     

Published: Jan 15, 2023
Updated: Jan 15, 2023

Will budget be investor and employee-friendly?

All eyes are on the Modi government’s last budget of his second term. The markets are bullish in anticipation of the government offering more freebies as the country has displayed remarkable resilience and has outperformed global markets handsomely, despite remaining almost flat (Nifty up 4%) in CY22. Buoyant corporate earnings and the highest ever domestic equity inflows ($ 32.2bn) underscored this outperformance.

It was a challenging year on the macro front with inflation, interest rate hikes and geopolitics driving the narrative considerably. The intent of global central banks, including the RBI, to increase interest rates aggressively to curb inflation and slow down growth seems to have started playing out, as is evident in the economic growth contraction across countries worldwide.

But as it would be the last budget of Mr Modi’s 2nd term, all eyes are on whether finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will make investors and the salaried class happy.