Market Talk will resume on Monday, April 13. We would like to wish our readers who celebrate a happy Easter weekend. ASIA: India’s factory output rose to a seven-month high of 4.5% in February, before the government imposed a nationwide lockdown in March that crippled normal economic activity. Mining and manufacturing grew at 10% and […]

QUESTION: Hi Mr. Armstrong, You have said that money is not gold, or silver, or oil, or fiat currency, but rather represents the collective elbow grease and ingenuity of a people. From the work of Socrates, which country or countries best typify this concept and therefore will become the better countries to live in, so […]

ASIA: India is planning to extend its nation-wide lockdown after many state governments requested to extend the lockdown retaining all or most of the existing curbs. The likelihood of lifting the lid on mass transit such as trains, metros, and flights and on inter-state movement of people appears slim. India’s state governments are demanding help […]

QUESTION: Isn’t Bill Gates linked with Al Gore and Greenpeace? Was he too using Greta? Wasn’t he funding covert political events in India? KR ANSWER: I do not know to what extent he was funding operations in India. Greenpeace was cut off for that activity. Gates, through his Gates Philanthropy Partners, is soliciting money to […]

ASIA: A group of Indian government ministers advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi to partially lift the lockdown imposed on March 25 for 21 days to sustain the livelihood of millions who have little to eat and to control the unemployment rate in the nation which has climbed to more than 20%. The panel has recommended […]

  ASIA: The former governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan has said that India can beat the virus with the right resolve and priorities by focusing on immediate needs and delaying less important expenditures. He also said that it will be hard to lockdown the country entirely for much longer periods as […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, your forecast for Iran back in 2012 has been correct. It picked 2016 which in January the International economic sanctions on Iran were lifted after UN said it was satisfied with progress on fulfilling the nuclear agreement. President Rouhani then embarked on the first European state visit of an Iranian president for […]

ASIA: A slow increase in output and new business, coupled with a steep decline in exports following the global coronavirus pandemic, pulled down India’s manufacturing activity to a four-month low in March, a private survey showed on Thursday. The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined to 51.8 in March from 54.5 in […]

ASIA: India’s policy makers are preparing a plan to carefully analyze a tough trade-off. They are considering a continued lockdown post-April 14, 2020, at the cost of longer-term economic devastation, or a rational “unlocking,” allowing India to return to work. Based on pre-COVID-19 projections of India’s GDP, the average daily GDP value for FY2021 was […]

ASIA India’s markets witnessed the biggest sell-off by foreign investors in a single month in March. The 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus raised fears of a devastating impact on an already-slowing economy. Foreign institutional investors sold nearly $16 billion worth of equity and debt as of Monday, according to depository […]