India suffers worst in Asian export decline -- FT Asia

India, Indonesia and South Korea reported significant year-on-year declines in exports on Friday.

However, a growing gap in trade performance was underlined by India’s latest figures, with exports tumbling 33 per cent in March to $11.5bn (€8.7bn, £7.7bn) from a year earlier – the biggest drop on record.

India’s exports to the US have fallen more sharply than those of China, South Korea and Brazil, according to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Gems, pharmaceuticals, textiles, vehicles and auto parts were all hit in an overall 12 per cent drop in US exports between October and February.

“The sharp decline in our exports to the US, which accounts for 13 per cent of our global exports, is a matter of deep concern,” said Harsh Pati Singhania, the president of FICCI.

Click here to access this FT Asia article

China vs United States: A visual comparison

All pictures from Mint.com/blog/finance-core

Does anyone really care what the IMF thinks?

Apr 22 (Retuers) - For the first time since the end of World War II, the International Monetary Fund is projecting that the world economy has fallen into a severe recession.

IMF statistics are widely used when proving a point in journalism, academic research or any other type of report. There are a handful of sources to turn when you need a legitimate source and the IMF's wonderful website is one of them.

It's full of statistics, economic research, news and pages dedicated to just explaining to you what the heck the IMF does... sounds like a exhilarating experience no?

There is already a raging debate among academics, economists and politicians if the good produced by the IMF outweighs the bad.

You don't see IMF economists, moving markets with their speeches on major news networks.

This is because they don't and they can't. When it comes down to it the IMF has true little power to influence momentum in markets. Financial markets don't care about what the chief economist at the IMF thinks or says because anyone in the business probably has a research department in their company that has already come to the same conclusion. Heck, I could have Googled what these IMF guys said in this Reuters video.