VARIABLES	LATEST FIGURES AVAILABLE
INFLATION RATE (WPI)	5.37% as on Jan 22nd 2005
INFLATION RATE (CPI)	3.6% over a year
GROWTH RATE OF M3	9.7% as on Jan 21st 2005
PRMIE LENDING RATE	10.25-10.75%
Re/$ EXCHANGE RATE	43.7 as on Jan 31st 2005
FOREX RESERVES	$129.72 billion as on Jan 28th 2004
INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION (IIP)	7.9 % in Dec 2004
GROWTH RATE OF EXPORTS	33 % in Jan 2005
GROWTH RATE OF IMPORTS	40.4 % in Jan 2005

INFLATION : The average inflation rate for the year may fall below the 6.5% rate, as per the latest trends in the weekly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), which slipped to 5.37% for the week ended January 22. There was an all-round dip in wholesale prices, including that of manufactured products, vegetables, fruits, edible oils, minerals and even some fuel categories. It was 6.24% a year-ago. The index fell by 0.1% to 188.4 points. It stood at 178.8 points in the corresponding period last year. The index for primary articles was down by 0.4% to 184.7 points due to a sharp fall in the prices of food and non-food articles. The all-India CPI (Urban Non-Manual Employees) for December 2004 is 436, which is three points less than the index for the previous month i.e. November 2004. At the group level, the index for December 2004 when compared to last month i.e. November 2004, has decreased by 1.42 percent in respect of "Food, Beverages & Tobacco" group. With the corresponding all-India index for December 2003 being 421, the index for the month of December 2004 has shown a rise of 3.6% over a year.

MONEY SUPPLY : Stock of money was Rs 2196876 Crore on Jan 21st 2005. So far in the financial year 2004-05, this variation is of the order of 9.7%. In terms of amount, the total outstanding money stock is higher by Rs 193774 crore than that in the same period a year ago. The components in money supply namely, currency with public, Demand deposits with banks, time deposits with banks and "other" deposits with banks witnessed a growth rate of 10%, 2.5%, 10.9% and 6.4% respectively. Compared to the last year growth rates in each of these components, maximum variation was seen in the demand deposits with banks, which was 9.8% on January 2003-04. Among the sources of variation in money supply net bank credit to govt and net foreign exchange assets of banking sector saw a decline while bank credit to commercial sector went up. Compared to growth rate in 2003-04, banking sector net monetary liabilities shot up. All this contributed to a lower money supply growth this fiscal year (till Jan 21, 2005).

INTEREST RATES : Prime lending rate of major 5 banks was in between 10.25%-10.75% as on Jan 21, 2005. This is remaining stable over last few months. Bank rate is also the same as of last month's figure of 6%.

INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
Industrial production rose 7.9 percent in December as interest rates at a three-decade low and rising incomes spurred consumers to spend. The increase in output at factories, utilities and mines from a year earlier was faster than November 7.7 percent growth, the Central Statistical Organisation said.

The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of December 2004 stand at 162.4, 229.2, and 187.4 respectively, with the corresponding growths of 2.9%, 8.8% and 4.4% as compared to December 2003. The cumulative growth during April-December, 2004-05 over the corresponding period of 2003-04 in the three sectors have been 4.8%, 9.0% and 6.4% respectively, with the overall growth in the General Index being 8.4%.

Among the major industry groups, textile Products (including Wearing Apparel)' have shown the highest growth of 38.2%, followed by 36.6% in 'Paper & Paper Products and Printing, Publishing & Allied Industries' and 19.0% in 'Other Manufacturing Industries'. On the other hand, 'Wood and Wood Products; Furniture and Fixtures' have shown a negative growth of 12.8% followed by a decline of 6.9% in 'Rubber, Plastic, Petroleum and Coal Products' and 2.3% in 'Leather and Leather & Fur Products'.

As per Use-based classification, the growth in December 2004 over December 2003 is 6.1% in Basic goods, 14.4% in Capital goods and 3.1% in Intermediate goods. The Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables have recorded growth of 13.0% and 11.6% respectively, with the overall growth in Consumer goods being 11.9%.

Accelerating industrial output may help India's $580 billion economy expand as much as 6.9 percent in the current fiscal year, faster than the 6.5 percent growth, which is forecasted.

EXCHANGE RATE : Re/$ exchange rate stood at Rs 43.69 per US $ on Jan 31 2005. During the month of January, the exchange rate revolved around 43.5, with maximum appreciation on Jan 10th (44.02) and minimum level on Jan 4th 2005 (43.43). Among the major non US dollar currencies, Re appreciated against Euro. It was 58.6 on 3rd January and went down to 57.9 on 31st January 2005. Value of Rupee against Japanese Yen(100) revolved around 42 during the entire month of January.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES : Foreign Exchange Reserves were reported to have touched US $ 129.72 billion in the week ended Jan 28. This has been due to large-scale overseas fund inflows into the domestic market. Forex reserves were higher in the previous month when it crossed 131 billion on Dec 31st 2004. It declined from that level in the first two weeks of Jan and then again started to rise in the fourth week recording an amount of $129.72 billion in the week ended Jan 28th 2005. Foreign currency assets stood at 1,23,719 while gold and SDR were US $4582 million and US $5 million respectively. Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies (such as Euro, Sterling, Yen) held in reserves.

SENSEX : BSE Sensex reached above 6600 points in Jan 2005, however volatility in stock prices continued for the month of January also. For the past six months the stock prices trend has been in an upward direction.

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS : Exports from India registered a 33% growth in January to touch $6.7bn. Exports during January '04 were $5.4bn. In rupee terms, exports grew 28.19% during January '05 at Rs 29,386 crore. This is also substantially higher than the meager 3.99 per cent export growth in January 2004 over January 2003. Exports during the first 10 months of the current fiscal grew 25.5% to $60.75bn as compared to $48.38bn during the same period of the previous fiscal. With the phase-out of quota in global trade in textiles and clothing from January 1, 2005, the country's textile exports would show up further in the remaining two months of the fiscal, boosting the overall exports and sustaining the distinctly high export growth noticeable now. The current estimate is that exports should touch $75bn during '04-05.

While the strong performance during January '05 has led to hopes that exports during '04-05 would far exceed the growth target of 16%, the trade deficit for the current financial year is widening due to strong growth in imports. According to data provided by the commerce department, the trade deficit for the first 10 months of the current fiscal was $22.68bn. As against the last year's trade deficit of $15bn, it is estimated that the deficit at the end of '04-05 could touch $30bn. Trade deficit for April-January '04-05 grew 67.5% to $22.68bn as compared to just $13.54bn during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Imports during January '05 rose 40.4% to $9.58bn as compared to $6.82bn a year ago. During the first ten months of the current fiscal, imports increased 34.72% to $83.4bn as compared to $61.9bn during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. In rupee terms, imports grew 35.15% in January. Oil imports during April-January '04-05 increased 40.14% to $23.4bn compared with $16.7bn during the same period last year. Non-oil imports in the 10-month period rose 32.7% to $59.98bn against $45.19bn in April-January the previous fiscal. The relatively robust growth in non-oil imports also reflects the pronounced pick-up noticeable in the manufacturing sector growth, which was running at eight per cent during the current fiscal.