FE Editorial : Bonding with inflation
The Financial Express: Feb 13 2013, 20:46 IST
Though the finance ministry has not been too keen on inflation-indexed bonds in the past, it is an idea whose time has come—to that extent, the fact that the budget may make an announcement in this regard is a good thing. While household savings fell from 25.2% of GDP in FY10 to 22.3% in FY12, the proportion being saved in financial savings fell from 12% of GDP to just 8%—though there is no concrete evidence as to what caused the move towards saving more in physical assets like land and gold, the most accepted theory is that these are hedges against inflation. So, while investing in gold would give a handsome post-inflation return, investments in fixed deposits would yield a negative real rate of return given the way inflation has behaved over the last few years. This is what inflation-indexed bonds hope to try to fix since, at all points in time, investors in this class of assets will always be guaranteed a positive, even if small, rate of return.
It’s not clear how much of the $10.5 billion of gold imports in Q2FY13 was made by households looking for an inflation hedge, but keep in mind this comprised around 50% of that quarter’s current account deficit. So if, for the sake of argument, a fifth of gold imports were on account for those looking for an inflation hedge, this can potentially reduce the current account deficit by a tenth. Nor is the cost that large. Assuming the government issues Rs
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