Category: Banking

MIL-OSI Economics: RBI imposes monetary penalty on IIFL Samasta Finance Limited

Source: Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated February 24, 2025, imposed a monetary penalty of ₹33.10 lakh (Rupees Thirty Three Lakh Ten Thousand only) on IIFL Samasta Finance Limited (the company) for non-compliance with certain provisions of the ‘Non-Banking Financial Company – Systemically Important Non-Deposit taking Company and Deposit taking Company (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016‘ and ‘Reserve Bank of India (Know Your Customer (KYC)) Directions, 2016‘ issued by RBI. This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers conferred on RBI under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 58G read with clause (aa) of sub-section (5) of Section 58B of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The statutory inspection of the company was conducted by RBI with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2023. Based on supervisory findings of non-compliance with RBI directions and related correspondence in that regard, a notice was issued to the company advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for its failure to comply with the said directions.

After considering the company’s reply to the notice, oral submissions made during the personal hearing and additional submissions made by it, RBI found, inter alia, that the following charges against the company were sustained, warranting imposition of monetary penalty:

The company charged interest on loans for a period prior to the date of actual disbursement of loan / issuance of cheque to certain borrowers in contravention of RBI directions on ‘Fair Practices Code’;
The company failed to classify certain loan accounts with overdues of 90 days or more as Non-Performing Assets (NPAs);
It classified certain loan accounts which were NPA as ‘standard asset’ without realisation of entire arrears of interest and principal amount due; and
It allotted multiple customer identification codes to certain individual customers instead of a Unique Customer Identification Code (UCIC) to each individual customer.

This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the company with its customers. Further, imposition of this monetary penalty is without prejudice to any other action that may be initiated by RBI against the company.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2281

MIL OSI Economics –

March 1, 2025

MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Grão-Pará Maranhão project and financing decision under the EU Global Gateway – E-000012/2025(ASW)

Source: European Parliament

The Commission has not taken such decisions. In relation to other financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Commission invites the Honourable Member to address those entities, the Commission is in any case not aware of any EIB decisions to finance the project.

The Grão-Pará Maranhão project is at a very early stage of proposal development, the Commission has not received requests for financial support and as such it has not taken any financing decision regarding this project.

Last updated: 28 February 2025

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Italy: EIB and INWIT sign €350 million agreement to develop digital telecommunications infrastructure
Source: European Investment Bank
- EIB financing to support the deployment and dissemination of digital telecommunications infrastructure and improve mobile coverage and connectivity.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted INWIT €350 million in funding to boost digitalisation and connectivity in Italy, so improving mobile coverage even in the most rural areas. The agreement was signed today in Rome by EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and INWIT General Manager Diego Galli.

The funding aims to support the development and implementation of macro-grid telecommunications infrastructure (raw land and rooftop towers), dedicated to enabling the connectivity of mobile network operators, including 5G and fixed wireless access (FWA) connections. Investments are also planned for micro-grid infrastructure, both outdoors (small cells) and indoors with multi-operator DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) coverage, to improve mobile connectivity in locations such as hospitals, museums, shopping centres, underground lines and motorway tunnels.

“This financing confirms the EIB’s commitment to supporting the development of digital infrastructure in Italy, fostering technological growth and the transition to increasingly advanced and efficient connectivity. The agreement further strengthens the partnership between the EIB and INWIT, validating the Bank’s strategic role in supporting telecommunications and promoting digital innovation in Italy,” said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti.

“This partnership represents further recognition of our business model and the strategic value of our investment plan in digital and shared infrastructure, which drives economic and industrial efficiency across the value chain for the benefit of our customers. This agreement further strengthens the already solid and long-standing cooperation between INWIT and the EIB,” commented Diego Galli, General Manager of INWIT.

Background information

EIB

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high -impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security. The EIB Group signed 99 operations totalling €10.98 billion in Italy in 2024, helping to unlock almost €37 billion of investment in the real economy. All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.

Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.

High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.

INWIT

INWIT, Italy’s first tower company and one of the country’s digital infrastructure leaders, builds and manages digital shared infrastructure enabling mobile telecommunication connectivity. Its assets form part of an integrated ecosystem of macro-grids (around 25 000 towers) and micro-grids (some 600 dedicated indoor DAS roofs), including 4G and 5G of the main mobile operators, FWAs and IoT sensors. INWIT contributes to more efficient development of the telco ecosystem, which is key for the digital transition and 5G, and is also committed to reducing the digital divide via the implementation of the 5G national recovery and resilience plan. INWIT is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (FTSE MIB – benchmark stock market index)
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Spain: EIB Group and Santander provide €163 million to support energy efficiency projects
Source: European Investment Bank
- The EIB Group has invested €121 million in an asset-backed securitisation operation by Santander.
- This EIB Group investment will enable Santander to mobilise some €163 million to promote green loans for real estate.
- The operation will support energy efficiency and sustainability projects in Spain’s residential real estate market.
The EIB Group – made up of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) – signed a new synthetic securitisation operation with Santander to provide financing for energy efficiency investments in the Spanish real estate sector, including the construction of new near zero-emission buildings and the renovation of existing residential properties to meet sustainability standards.

The operation will allow new green and sustainable mortgages to be granted to individuals investing in the renovation or construction of buildings with high energy efficiency standards that meet the eligibility conditions set by the EIB.

The projects financed by this operation will improve energy efficiency, reduce CO₂ emissions and help mitigate climate change. The operation contributes to EIB Group priorities such as climate action, cohesion and developing the securitisation market in Europe.

The EIB’s commitment amounts to around €76 million, while the EIF has committed €45 million. The full EIB Group investment is being executed in a single securitisation, optimally structured to give Santander capital relief on a portfolio of residential mortgages. Under the transaction, the EIB Group will provide a €121 million unfunded guarantee in a mezzanine tranche with the goal of enabling Santander to finance new energy efficiency investments for an amount equal to 1.34 times the size of the EIB Group guarantee.

Background information

EIB

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high -impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.

All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.

Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB’s financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.

In Spain, the EIB Group signed €12.3 billion of new financing for more than 100 high-impact projects in 2024, helping power the country’s green and digital transition and promote economic growth, competitiveness and better services for inhabitants.

High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.

About Santander

Banco Santander (SAN SM) is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. The group’s activities are consolidated into five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Digital Consumer Bank, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Wealth Management & Insurance and Payments (PagoNxt and Cards). This operating model allows the bank to better leverage its unique combination of global scale and local leadership. Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising €220 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2030. At the end of 2024, Banco Santander had €1.3 trillion in total funds, 173 million customers, 8,000 branches and 207,000 employees.
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: ECB Consumer Expectations Survey results – January 2025
Source: European Central Bank

28 February 2025

Compared with December 2024:
- median consumer perceptions of inflation over the previous 12 months decreased, as did median inflation expectations for the next 12 months, while median inflation expectations for three years ahead remained unchanged;
- expectations for nominal income growth over the next 12 months decreased, while expectations for spending growth over the next 12 months increased;
- expectations for economic growth over the next 12 months became less negative, while the expected unemployment rate in 12 months’ time decreased;
- expectations for growth in the price of homes over the next 12 months increased, while expectations for mortgage interest rates 12 months ahead declined.
Inflation

The median rate of perceived inflation over the previous 12 months decreased slightly in January to 3.4%, from 3.5% in December. Median expectations for inflation over the next 12 months also decreased, to 2.6% from 2.8%. In both instances, these decreases reversed the increases observed in the December 2024 data. Median expectations for inflation three years ahead were unchanged at 2.4% in January 2025. Inflation expectations at the one-year and three-year horizons thus remained below the perceived past inflation rate. Uncertainty about inflation expectations over the next 12 months remained unchanged, for the sixth month in a row, at its lowest level since February 2022. While the broad evolution of inflation perceptions and expectations remained relatively closely aligned across income groups, expectations for lower income quintiles were slightly above those for higher income quintiles. Younger respondents (aged 18-34) continued to report lower inflation perceptions and expectations than older respondents (those aged 35-54 and 55-70), albeit to a lesser degree than in previous years. (Inflation results)

Income and consumption

Consumers’ nominal income growth expectations over the next 12 months decreased to 0.9% in January from 1.1% in December. The drop in income growth expectations was mainly driven by the lowest income quintile, while the income growth expectations of the two highest quintiles remained unchanged. Perceived nominal spending growth over the previous 12 months decreased to 5.1% in January, from 5.2% in December, while expected nominal spending growth over the next 12 months increased to 3.6%, from 3.5% in December. (Income and consumption results)

Economic growth and labour market

Economic growth expectations for the next 12 months were less negative, standing at -1.1%, compared with -1.3% in December. Expectations for the unemployment rate 12 months ahead decreased to 10.4%, from 10.5% in December. Consumers continued to expect the future unemployment rate to be only slightly higher than the perceived current unemployment rate (9.9%), implying a broadly stable labour market. Quarterly data showed that unemployed respondents reported a decrease in their expected probability of finding a job over the next three months, which declined to 25.1% in January, from 29.3% in October. Employed respondents, by contrast, reported that their expected probability of job loss over the next three months decreased to 8.6% in January, from 9.0% in October. (Economic growth and labour market results)

Housing and credit access

Consumers expected the price of their home to increase by 3.0% over the next 12 months, which was slightly higher compared than in December (2.9%). Households in the lowest income quintile continued to expect higher growth in house prices than those in the highest income quintile (3.4% and 2.8% respectively), although the difference narrowed compared with earlier months. Expectations for mortgage interest rates 12 months ahead declined slightly to 4.5%, their lowest level since July 2022. As in previous months, the lowest income households expected the highest mortgage interest rates 12 months ahead (5.1%), while the highest income households expected the lowest rates (3.9%). The net percentage of households reporting a tightening (relative to those reporting an easing) in access to credit over the previous 12 months increased, as did the net percentage of those expecting a tightening over the next 12 months. The share of consumers who reported having applied for credit during the past three months, which is measured on a quarterly basis, declined to 15.0% in January from 15.9% in October. (Housing and credit access results)

The release of the Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) results for February is scheduled for 28 March 2025.

For media queries, please contact: Nicos Keranis, Tel: +49 172 758 7237

Notes
- Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics presented in this press release refer to the 2% winsorised mean. For further details, see ECB Consumer Expectations Survey – Guide to the computation of aggregate statistics.
- The CES is a monthly online survey of, currently, around 19,000 adult consumers (i.e. aged 18 or over) from 11 euro area countries: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. The main aggregate results of the CES are published on the ECB’s website every month. The results are used for policy analysis and complement other data sources used by the ECB.
- Further information about the survey and the data collected is available on the CES web page. Detailed information can also be found in the following two publications: Bańkowska, K. et al., “ECB Consumer Expectations Survey: an overview and first evaluation”, Occasional Paper Series, No 287, ECB, Frankfurt am Main, December 2021; and Georgarakos, D. and Kenny, G., “Household spending and fiscal support during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from a new consumer survey”, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 129, Supplement, July 2022, pp. S1-S14.
- The survey results do not represent the views of the ECB’s decision-making bodies or staff.
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 1, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Piero Cipollone: The role of the digital euro in digital payments and finance

Source: European Central Bank

Contribution to Bancaria by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, based on remarks at the Crypto Asset Lab Conference on 17 January 2025

28 February 2025

Being a key player in digital payments and digital finance should be a priority for Europe.

As Mario Draghi pointed out in his recent report, the productivity gap between the United States and the European Union is mostly explained by technology and finance.^[1] If we take the information and communications technology (ICT) and financial sectors out, the gap disappears.

If we want to close the productivity gap with the United States, we need to focus on these areas. Digital payments and digital finance stand at the intersection of these two sectors. And they are developing fast, driven by changes in habits and technology. This is both an opportunity and a risk for Europe. It is an opportunity to close the gap by developing innovative and competitive European solutions. But if we do not seize that opportunity, we run the risk of weakening our competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy.

At the European Central Bank (ECB), as guardians of our single currency, the euro, we consider this a matter of crucial importance. Ultimately, it is about the future of our currency. Today, the euro is the second most important currency in the international monetary system. Its share across a range of indicators stands at around 20%, and the euro area accounts for around 12% of global GDP.^[2] If we want to prevent the euro from losing importance on the global stage, transacting and investing in euro needs to be seen as safe, easy and efficient, even as digitalisation transforms payments and finance.^[3]

Central bank money – the central pillar of the payments and financial system – has a key role to play in connecting the different parts of the financial system in a safe and risk-free way. This is particularly relevant in Europe, where payments and finance often remain fragmented along national lines, preventing us from fully reaping the benefits of the single European market. This is true for both retail and wholesale transactions.

For retail transactions – payments made on a daily basis by consumers and businesses – our reliance on non-European solutions weakens our strategic autonomy and is a drag on productivity growth. We should ask, for example, why we don’t have a European VISA or Mastercard. A digital euro – that is, central bank money in digital form for retail transactions – would give us the chance to increase efficiency, competition, innovation and resilience while allowing European private payment solutions to scale up and protect our monetary sovereignty.^[4]

For wholesale transactions – transactions between financial institutions – we need to avoid repeating the mistake we made in the retail sector and ensure that we provide the conditions for European actors to stay ahead of their competitors. New technologies offer us the opportunity to create an integrated European market for digital assets from the outset, in other words a European capital markets union.^[5]

A digital euro for everyday payments

For firms and households, central bank money is currently only available in the form of cash; there is currently no equivalent in digital form, which is becoming increasingly problematic because the use and acceptance of cash are declining. In the euro area, cash transactions have fallen below card transactions in value.^[6] The share of companies reporting that they do not accept cash has tripled over the last three years to 12%.^[7] The European Commission has put forward a legislative proposal to ensure the acceptance of cash^[8], and the ECB is committed to ensuring that cash remains as widely available and accessible as possible^[9]. Still, the trend towards cash being used less for daily transactions is likely to continue owing to the digitalisation of the economy in line with what has been observed in many advanced economies.

Day-to-day payments in the euro area by payment instrument, in value terms

(percentage of the value of all non-recurring day-to-day payments)

Source: ECB (2024), Study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE).

Note: The “Other” category includes bank cheques, credit transfers, direct debit, instant payments, loyalty points, vouchers and gift cards, crypto-assets, buy-now-pay-later services and other payment instruments.

Current European digital payment solutions, such as cards issued by European payment schemes, mainly cater to national markets and specific use cases. To pay across European countries, consumers have to rely on a few non-European providers. More than two-thirds of card transactions in the euro area were settled through international payment schemes in the second half of 2023.^[10] And 13 out of 20 euro area countries rely entirely on non-European solutions in the absence of their own domestic payment scheme. But even those international payment solutions are not accepted everywhere and do not cover all key use cases.

National card schemes in the euro area

Source: ECB.

As a result, one of the key objectives of central bank money – to offer the public a means of payment backed by the sovereign authority that can be used for retail transactions across the entire currency area – is not being fulfilled in the digital space.

In addition, European payments have become a prime example of the situation that Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi described in their recent reports.^[11] The fragmentation of the market along national lines, the lack of European payment solutions available on a European scale and the difficulty faced by European payment service providers in keeping pace with technological advances mean that Europe is not competitive within its own market, let alone on a global scale.

Moreover, in an unstable geopolitical environment, we are being left to rely on companies based in other countries. In future, this dependency could extend beyond traditional payment service providers. Platforms like Ant Group’s Alipay have shown they know how to bridge geographical gaps: during major events like UEFA EURO 2024 they were able to boost their payment app usage among customers in Europe.

Merchants – and consumers, who bear the costs – are left to deal with the consequences of the international card schemes’ market dominance. To give just one example, the average net merchant service charges in the EU almost doubled between 2018 and 2022.^[12] This increase occurred despite regulatory efforts to contain it. And the cost falls disproportionately on smaller retailers, who face charges that are three to four times higher than those paid by their larger counterparts.^[13]

We must move swiftly to counter the risks stemming from Europe’s current inability to secure the integration and autonomy of its retail payment system. This is one of the key reasons behind the digital euro project: to bring central bank money into the digital age. Doing so would provide firms and households with a digital equivalent to banknotes and would strengthen our monetary sovereignty.

Benefits for consumers and merchants

Complementing banknotes, the digital euro would give all European citizens and firms the freedom to make and receive digital payments seamlessly.^[14]

The digital euro would provide a single, easy, secure and universally accepted public solution for digital payments in stores, online and from person to person. It would be available both online and offline, and would be free for basic use.

For merchants, the digital euro would provide seamless access to all European consumers. Moreover, it would offer an alternative that would increase competition, thereby lowering transaction costs in a more direct way than is possible through regulations and competition authorities.^[15]

Fostering competition and innovation in an integrated payments ecosystem

The digital euro would strengthen the euro area economy by fostering competition and innovation.

European payment service providers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with international card schemes and mobile payment solutions. As the latter grow in popularity, banks risk falling behind not only in terms of interchange fees, but also in terms of client relationships and user data.

By contrast, the digital euro would ensure that payment service providers would continue to play a central role, thus enabling them to maintain customer relationships and be compensated for their services, as is currently the case.^[16] It would also offer an alternative to co-badging with international card schemes for cross-border payments in – and potentially beyond – the euro area, thus promoting competition.

The digital euro would also expand the opportunities available to payment service providers while reducing the cost of offering their own services on a European scale. In addition, it would foster an environment conducive to the widespread adoption of payment innovations throughout the euro area.

Currently, several innovations aimed at simplifying payments are emerging within specific national markets or across a few countries, driven by European payment service providers. Although these innovations are highly commendable and would enhance people’s lives, existing structural barriers are hampering their efforts to achieve pan-European scale.

These solutions are struggling to achieve the scale needed to provide a service to everyone in the euro area. This limits their ability to compete effectively with the large international players who can fully leverage economies of scale, even on a global level.

The European Commission’s legislative proposal^[17] foresees that the digital euro would have legal tender status; this implies that it would be accepted by all merchants who currently accept electronic payments. In reality this would equate to the creation of a pan-European network which could also be used by private solutions, thus overcoming the obstacles limiting their growth.

This would foster a more integrated European payments market. As private providers expand their geographical reach and diversify their product portfolios, they will benefit from cost efficiencies and be better positioned to compete internationally.

In essence, the network effects generated by a digital euro would function as a public good, benefiting both public and private initiatives. This approach would be akin to creating a unified European railway network or European energy grid, where various companies could competitively operate their own services and deliver added value to customers.

Instead of requiring significant investment to expand existing services across the euro area, the open digital euro standards would facilitate cost-effective standardisation, making it possible for private retail payment solution providers to launch new products and functionalities on a broader scale.

Ultimately, whether through the digital euro or private solutions, this framework would unlock innovation, create new business opportunities and improve consumer access to a diverse range of goods and services.

Making this vision a shared reality

The design of the digital euro, as well as the key provision in the regulation proposed by the European Commission, contains all the key elements required to make this vision a reality.

Over the past years, we have extensively engaged with a multitude of market stakeholders to establish the digital euro’s features. We have collected and discussed the input of representatives of consumers, merchants, banks and payment service providers. Furthermore, we are now looking at how the digital euro could be used to provide services currently not available on the market. To this end, we launched a call for expressions of interest, asking for collaboration from stakeholders, and we received a very strong response. Through this inclusive approach, we want to take everyone’s needs and perspectives into consideration to produce a robust payments solution.

The role of central bank money in developing a European market for digital assets

Currently, the ECB and the national central banks of those EU Member States whose currency is the euro (which we collectively refer to as the Eurosystem) offer central bank money in digital form to financial institutions through our TARGET Services: T2 settles more than 90% of the value of large payments between financial institutions, and T2S settles securities transactions. These services have been crucial in increasing the efficiency and integration of post-trade platforms in Europe.

We are committed to continuing to provide state-of-the-art settlement services in central bank money, even as new technologies emerge.

The potential of new technologies

In this respect, we recognise the potential of new technologies, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT), to transform and improve wholesale financial markets by enabling assets to be issued or represented in digital token form.

DLT allows market participants to handle trading, settlement and custody on the same platform, reducing credit risk, transaction failures and reconciliation needs. It can enhance efficiency by operating on a 24/7, 365 days a year basis and settling transactions instantly, which could potentially reduce annual infrastructure operational costs. A shared DLT platform could lower market entry barriers, enable small and medium-sized enterprises and new players to access capital markets and facilitate the efficient trading of financial instruments currently not covered on regulated markets.

We have an opportunity to create an integrated European capital market for digital assets from the outset – in other words, a digital capital markets union.^[18]

In fact, we have recently seen an upsurge in DLT initiatives in Europe. Over 60% of EU banks are exploring or using DLT, with 22% already implementing DLT applications. Furthermore, on the securities side, there has been an increasing number of issuances on DLT.

The role of central bank money and the Eurosystem’s exploratory work

The ECB is aware that it has a role to play in this work from the very beginning.

The availability of central bank money to settle transactions using these new technologies is important for two reasons. First, if we don’t use central bank money, other settlement assets – such as stablecoins or tokenised deposits – will be used, which would reintroduce credit risks and fragmentation in the financial system. And second, the possibility to settle in central bank money is seen by the market as a key factor in the adoption of new technologies.

The Eurosystem has already worked with the market to test settling wholesale transactions in central bank money using DLT. In exploratory work we carried out in 2024, for example, we offered three different solutions to link our TARGET services to market DLT platforms. This allowed industry participants to either settle real transactions in central bank money or conduct experiments with mock transactions.^[19]

This exploratory work stands out at the global level in terms of its scale and scope. Overall, 60 industry participants took part, including incumbents and new entrants. More than 40 experiments and trials covered a wide range of securities and payments use cases, including the first issuance of an EU sovereign bond using DLT. A total value of €1.6 billion was settled via trials over a six-month period, exceeding values settled in comparable initiatives in other jurisdictions.

Next steps

In the short term, the Eurosystem will aim to make it possible to settle DLT transactions in central bank money, with a view to enabling the further development of DLT on the market.^[20] The technological solution will be based on interoperability between market DLTs and the Eurosystem, but also – and this is crucial – between market platforms, based on strong and enforceable standards.

Looking further ahead, we will investigate how DLT can be used to create a more integrated financial market. With new technology, there is the opportunity to create a new ecosystem from scratch in a more integrated and harmonised manner. One way to achieve this integrated ecosystem in the longer term would be to move towards a European shared ledger. This would bring together token versions of central bank money, commercial bank money and other digital assets on a shared, programmable platform, on which market participants could provide their services. Another option could be the coordinated development of an ecosystem of fully interoperable technical solutions, which might better serve specific use cases and enable legacy and new solutions to coexist.

The trade-offs between the benefits of such flexibility and those of bringing everyone together on one platform need further analysis. We will reflect on these trade-offs and refine this long-term vision together with private and public sector stakeholders.

Conclusion

In the current fast-moving environment, Europe cannot stand still. If we do not bring central bank money into the digital age, we will hamper Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy. And we will miss out on the opportunities that digital payments and digital finance offer. Others would reap the benefits instead.

By ensuring that central bank money keeps pace with digitalisation and new technologies, we would safeguard our monetary sovereignty. We would overcome fragmentation by offering money that can be used for any digital transactions in the euro area. We would foster competition and innovation. And we would strengthen our autonomy and resilience.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 1, 2025

MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: SECOND ADVANCE ESTIMATES OF ANNUAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR 2024-25, QUARTERLY ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER (OCTOBER-DECEMBER) OF 2024-25 AND FIRST REVISED & FINAL ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, NATIONAL INCOME, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE, SAVING AND CAPITAL FORMATION FOR 2023-24 & 2022-23 RESPECTIVELY

Source: Government of India (2)

SECOND ADVANCE ESTIMATES OF ANNUAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR 2024-25, QUARTERLY ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER (OCTOBER-DECEMBER) OF 2024-25 AND FIRST REVISED & FINAL ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, NATIONAL INCOME, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE, SAVING AND CAPITAL FORMATION FOR 2023-24 & 2022-23 RESPECTIVELY

Real GDP Growth Rate of 9.2% for 2023-24 is the highest in the previous 12 years except for 2021-22

Growth Rate of Real GDP for 2024-25 is estimated as 6.5%

Real GDP has observed a Growth Rate of 6.2% in Q3 of FY 2024-25

Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 4:00PM by PIB Delhi

The National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is releasing in this Press Note the Second Advance Estimates (SAE) of Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Financial Year (FY) 2024-25; Quarterly Estimates of GDP for October-December Quarter (Q3) of FY 2024-25 along with its expenditure components and following Revised Estimates of GDP, National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation:

a. First Revised Estimates (FRE) for the Financial year 2023-24;

b. Second Revised Estimates or Final Estimates (FE) for the Financial year 2022-23.

These estimates are released both at Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices, in accordance with the release calendar of National Accounts. Detailed Notes on: (i) Second Advance Estimates (SAE) of Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of FY 2024-25, Quarterly Estimates of GDP for October-December Quarter (Q3) of FY 2024-25 and (ii) Abovementioned Revised Estimates for financial years 2023-24 and 2022-23 are given respectively in Part A and Part B of the Press Note.

Key Highlights:

1. Real GDP has been estimated to grow by 6.5% in FY 2024-25. Nominal GDP is expected to witness a growth rate of 9.9% in FY 2024-25. Both the growth rates are revised upward from their respective First Advance Estimates.

2. As per the First Revised Estimates, Real GDP has grown by 9.2% in the financial year 2023-24, which is highest in the previous 12 years except for the financial year 2021-22 (the post-covid year). This growth has been contributed by double-digit growth rates in ‘Manufacturing’ sector (12.3%), ‘Construction’ sector (10.4%) and ‘Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services’ sector (10.3%).

3. As per the Final Estimates, Real GDP has observed a growth rate of 7.6% in the financial year 2022-23, mainly contributed by double-digit growth rates in ‘Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & Services related to Broadcasting’ sector (12.3%), ‘Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services’ sector (10.8%) and ‘Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services’ sector (10.8%).

4. Real GDP is estimated to grow by 6.2% in Q3 of FY 2024-25. Growth rate in Nominal GDP for Q3 of FY 2024-25 has been estimated at 9.9%.

5. The growth rate of Real GDP for Q2 of financial year 2024-25 has been revised upward to 5.6%.

6. ‘Construction’ sector is estimated to observe a growth rate of 8.6%, followed by ‘Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services’ sector (7.2%) and ‘Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication & Services related to Broadcasting’ sector (6.4%) during 2024-25.

7. Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) is expected to register a good growth of 7.6% during 2024-25 as compared to 5.6% growth observed during 2023-24.

PART A

NOTE ON SECOND ADVANCE ESTIMATES OF ANNUAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR 2024-25

QUARTERLY ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER (OCT-DEC) OF 2024-25

The National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is releasing in this Press Note, the Second Advance Estimates (SAE) of Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the Financial Year (FY) 2024-25 and Quarterly Estimates of GDP for the Third quarter (October-December) of 2024-25 along with its expenditure components both at Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices. Annual, Quarterly as well as April-December estimates of Gross Value Added (GVA) at Basic Prices by kind of economic activity along with year on year percent changes, expenditure components of GDP and annual estimates of Gross/Net National Income and Per Capita Income for the Financial years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 at Constant and Current Prices are given in Statements 1A to 12A of Annexure A.

I. Annual Estimates and Growth Rates

Real GDP or GDP at Constant Prices is estimated to attain a level of ₹187.95 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-25, against the First Revised Estimate of GDP for the year 2023-24 of ₹176.51 lakh crore. The growth rate in Real GDP during 2024-25 is estimated at 6.5% as compared to 9.2% in 2023-24. Nominal GDP or GDP at Current Prices is estimated to attain a level of ₹331.03 lakh crore in the year 2024-25, against ₹301.23 lakh crore in 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 9.9%.

Real GVA is estimated at ₹171.80 lakh crore in the year 2024-25, against the FRE for the year 2023-24 of ₹161.51 lakh crore, registering a growth rate of 6.4% as compared to 8.6% growth rate in 2023-24. Nominal GVA is estimated to attain a level of ₹300.15 lakh crore during FY 2024-25, against ₹274.13 lakh crore in 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 9.5%

Fig. 1: Annual GDP and GVA Estimates along with Y-o-Y Growth Rates at Constant Prices

Fig. 2: Sectoral Composition and Growth Rates of Annual GVA

Sectoral Composition of Nominal GVA in FY 2024-25

Fig. 3: Composition and Growth Rates of Annual GVA in Broad Sectors

II. Quarterly Estimates and Growth Rates

Real GDP or GDP at Constant Prices in Q3 of FY 2024-25 is estimated at ₹47.17 lakh crore, against ₹44.44 lakh crore in Q3 of FY 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 6.2%. Nominal GDP or GDP at Current Prices in Q3 of FY 2024-25 is estimated at ₹84.74 lakh crore, against ₹77.10 lakh crore in Q3 of FY 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 9.9%.

Real GVA in Q3 of FY 2024-25 is estimated at ₹43.13 lakh crore, against ₹40.60 lakh crore in Q3 of FY 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 6.2%. Nominal GVA in Q3 of FY 2024-25 is estimated at ₹77.06 lakh crore, against ₹69.90 lakh crore in Q3 of FY 2023-24, showing a growth rate of 10.2%.

Fig. 4: Quarterly GDP and GVA Estimates along with Y-o-Y Growth Rates from Q1 FY 2021-22 to Q3 FY 2024-25 at Constant Prices

Fig. 5: Sectoral Composition and Growth Rates of Quarterly GVA

Sectoral Composition of Nominal GVA in Q3 of FY 2024-25

Fig. 6: Composition and Growth Rates of Quarterly GVA in Broad Sectors

[Primary Sector: Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry & Fishing and Mining & Quarrying

Secondary Sector: Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas, Water supply & Other Utility Services and Construction

Tertiary Sector: Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and Services related to Broadcasting, Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services and Public Administration, Defence & Other Services]

III. Methodology and Major Data Sources:

Second Advance Estimates of Annual GDP and Quarterly Estimates GDP are compiled using the Benchmark-indicator method i.e. the estimates available for the previous financial year (2023-24) are extrapolated using the relevant indicators reflecting the performance of sectors. The First Advance Estimates (FAE) of Annual GDP for the financial year 2024-25 were released on 7^th January, 2025, which were based on very limited data and used Provisional Estimates of 2023-24 as Benchmark Estimates. For Compilation of SAE, 2024-25, the Provisional Estimates of 2023-24 used at the time of FAE have been replaced by FRE, 2023-24 which have been compiled using industry-wise/institution-wise detailed information. Thus, overall as well as sectoral variations in SAE from FAE is attributed to revision of benchmark estimates and additional or updated data available on various indicators. The quarterly estimates of previous years along with the First and Second quarter estimates of 2024-25 released earlier have also undergone revision in accordance with the revision policy of National Accounts.

The sector-wise estimates have been compiled using indicators/data sources like (i) Index of Industrial Production (IIP), (ii) Financial performance of Listed Companies based on available quarterly financial results of these companies upto Q3 FY 2024-25, (iii) Estimates of Major Agricultural Crops and Horticultural crops for 2024-25, as provided by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (iv) Production Targets and Summer as well as Rainy season production estimates of Major Livestock Products for FY 2024-25; (v) Fish Production, (vi) Production of Coal, Crude Petroleum, Natural Gas, Cement and Consumption of Steel, (vii) Net Tonne Kilometres and Passenger Kilometres for Railways, (viii) Passenger and Cargo traffic handled by Civil Aviation, (ix) Cargo traffic handled at Major and Minor Sea Ports, (x) Sales of Commercial Vehicles, (xi) Bank Deposits and Credits, (xii) Premium related information of Life and Non-Life Insurance companies, (xiii) Data on outward Supplies of Goods and Services available from GSTN upto January, 2025 (xiv) Accounts of Central and State Governments, (xv) Goods and Services Tax collections etc., available for first 9-10 months of the FY 2024-25. Year-on-Year growth rates (%) in the main indicators used in the estimation are given in the Annexure B.

Total tax revenue used for GDP compilation includes non-GST revenue as well as GST revenue. The Revised Estimates of Tax revenue for 2024-25 as available in the Annual Financial Statement of the Central Government, along with latest available information from the websites of Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) have been used for estimating taxes on products at Current Prices. For compiling taxes on products at Constant Prices, volume extrapolation is done using volume growth of taxed goods and services. The total product subsidies at Current prices were compiled using the latest information on major subsidies viz. Food, Urea, Petroleum and Nutrient based subsidy for Centre as available on CGA website and the expenditure incurred on subsidies by most States up to December 2024 as available on CAG website along with the Centre/State-wise RE and BE provision for FY 2024-25. Information available on Revenue expenditure, Interest payments, Subsidies etc. from Centre and States for FY 2024-25 were used for estimating Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE).

Improved data coverage and revision in input data made by source agencies would have a bearing on subsequent revisions of these estimates. Estimates are, therefore, likely to undergo revisions for the aforesaid causes in due course, as per the release calendar. Users should take these into consideration while interpreting the figures. The Provisional Estimates of Annual GDP for FY 2024-25 along with Quarterly GDP estimates for the quarter January-March of FY 2024-25 (Q4 2024-25) will be released on 30.05.2025.

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Annexure A

Annexure B

PART B

NOTE ON FIRST REVISED & FINAL ESTIMATES OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, NATIONAL INCOME, CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE, SAVING AND CAPITAL FORMATION FOR 2023-24 & 2022-23 RESPECTIVELY

In this part of the press note, First Revised Estimates of GDP, National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation for the financial year 2023-24 and Second Revised/ Final Estimates for the financial year 2022-23 are given.

2. The First Revised Estimates for the year 2023-24 have been compiled using industry-wise/institution-wise detailed information instead of using the benchmark-indicator method employed at the time of release of Provisional Estimates on 31^st May, 2024. The estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other aggregates for the year 2022-23 have also undergone revisions on account of use of latest available datasets on agricultural production; industrial production (final results of Annual Survey of Industries: 2022-23); government data as available in budget documents (replacing Revised Estimates with actuals for the year 2022-23); comprehensive data available from various source agencies like Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) etc. and additional data from State/UT Directorates of Economics and Statistics (DES).

3. The salient features of the revised estimates at aggregate level are given in the paras as follows.

Gross Domestic Product

4. Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2023-24 and 2022-23 stands at ₹176.51 lakh crore and ₹161.65 lakh crore, respectively, showing a growth of 9.2 per cent during 2023-24 as compared to growth of 7.6 per cent during 2022-23.

5. Nominal GDP or GDP at current prices for the year 2023-24 is estimated at ₹301.23 lakh crore, against ₹268.90 lakh crore for the year 2022-23, showing a growth of 12.0 per cent during 2023-24 as compared to growth of 14.0 per cent during 2022-23.

GVA and its Industry-wise Analysis

6. At the aggregate level, nominal Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices has increased by 11.2 per cent during 2023-24 compared to growth of 13.9 per cent during 2022-23. Real GVA, i.e., GVA at constant (2011-12) prices, has increased by 8.6 per cent in 2023-24, compared to 7.2 per cent growth in 2022-23.

7. The shares of broad sectors of the economy in overall GVA during 2011-12 to 2023-24 and the annual growth rates during these periods are mentioned below:

#: Final Estimates; @: First Revised Estimates

8. The growth rates of Primary sector (comprising Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fishing and Mining & Quarrying), Secondary sector (comprising Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services, and Construction) and Tertiary sector (Services) have been estimated as 2.7 per cent, 11.4 per cent and 9.0 per cent respectively in 2023-24 as against growth rates of 5.9 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively in the previous years. The growth in real GVA during 2023-24 is on account of growth in ‘Manufacturing’, ‘Electricity, Gas, Water Supply & Other Utility Services’, ‘Construction’, ‘Trade, repair, Hotels and Restaurants’, ‘Financial Services’, ‘Real Estate, Ownership of Dwelling & Professional Services’ and ‘Other services’ as may be seen from Statement 4.2B. However, ‘Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing’, ‘Mining and Quarrying’ and ‘Public Administration and Defense’ have witnessed modest growth.

Net National Income

9. Net National Income (NNI) at current prices for the year 2023-24 stands at ₹263.50 lakh crore as against ₹233.91 lakh crore in 2022-23, showing a growth of 12.7 per cent during 2023-24 as compared to growth of 13.3 per cent in the previous year.

Gross National Disposable Income

10. Gross National Disposable Income (GNDI) at current prices is estimated at ₹305.94 lakh crore for the year 2023-24, while the estimate for the year 2022-23 stands at ₹273.39 lakh crore, showing a growth of 11.9 per cent for year 2023-24 as compared to growth of 14.3 per cent in the year 2022-23.

Saving

11. Gross Saving during 2023-24 is estimated at ₹92.59 lakh crore against ₹82.44 lakh crore during 2022-23. Share of Non-financial corporations, Financial corporations, General Government and Household sectors in Gross Savings during 2023-24 stands at 36.0%, 8.2%, (-) 3.1% and 59.0% respectively. Rate of Gross Saving to GNDI for 2023-24 is estimated at 30.3 per cent as against 30.2 per cent for 2022-23.

Capital Formation

12. Gross Capital Formation (GCF) at current prices is estimated at ₹94.68 lakh crore for the year 2023-24 as compared to ₹87.72 lakh crore during 2022-23. The rate of GCF to GDP is 31.4 per cent during 2023-24 as against 32.6 per cent in the 2022-23. The rates of capital formation in the years 2011-12 to 2019-20 and 2021-22 to 2023-24 have been higher than the rate of saving because of positive net capital flow from Rest of the World (RoW).

13. In terms of the share to the total GFCF (at current prices), the highest contributor is Non-Financial Corporations followed by Household sector, share of which stood at 44.2% and 41.7% respectively in 2023-24.

14. The rate of GCF to GDP at constant (2011-12) prices was 35.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 34.6 per cent in 2023-24.

Consumption Expenditure

15. Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) at current prices is estimated at ₹181.30 lakh crore for the year 2023-24 as against ₹165.28 lakh crore in 2022-23. In relation to GDP, the PFCE to GDP ratio at current prices during 2022-23 and 2023-24 are 61.5 per cent and 60.2 per cent respectively. At constant (2011-12) prices, the PFCE is estimated at ₹93.85 lakh crore and ₹99.07 lakh crore, respectively for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24. The corresponding PFCE to GDP ratio for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 are 58.1 per cent and 56.1 per cent respectively.

16. Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) at current prices is estimated at ₹31.04 lakh crore for the year 2023-24 as against ₹27.58 lakh crore during 2022-23. At constant (2011-12) prices the estimates of GFCE for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 stand at ₹15.44 lakh crore and ₹16.70 lakh crore respectively.

Per Capita Estimates

17. Per Capita Income i.e. Per Capita Net National Income at current prices is estimated at ₹1,69,145 and ₹1,88,892 respectively for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24. Per Capita PFCE at current prices, for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 is estimated at ₹1,19,516 and ₹1,29,967 respectively.

Summary of Revisions in the GDP Estimates

Revision in the estimates of the year 2023-24

18. The following statement gives the major reasons of variation between the Provisional Estimates (released on 31^st May, 2024) and the First Revised Estimates of GVA for 2023-24.

Sector	GVA growth in 2023-24 (at 2011-12 Prices)		Major reasons for variation
Sector	Provisional Estimate (PE), May 2024	First Revised Estimate (FRE), Feb 2025	Major reasons for variation
Primary	2.1	2.7	GVA estimates of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing sectors have undergone revision due to revision in production estimates of crop sector as per Final Estimate of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare. The revision in other industries in Primary Sector is due to the incorporation of latest revised data.
Secondary	9.7	11.4	Estimates of secondary sector have undergone revision due to use of data from source agencies along with detailed analysis of Non-departmental Enterprises (NDE) & Private Corporate sectors and budget documents of Government whereas provisional estimates were indicator based.
Tertiary	7.6	9.0	Data from source agencies along with detailed analysis of Departmental Enterprises (DE), NDE and Private Corporate sectors have been used for compilation of estimates for FRE 2023-24 whereas provisional estimates were indicator based. Furthermore, the revision in Public Administration and Defence sector is due to the use of detailed analysis of Budget documents (Centre and State Governments) and latest information of Local Bodies and Autonomous Bodies. In case of Financial services, FRE is based on analysis of annual reports of Financial Corporations and data released by RBI, NABARD and other financial regulators.
Total GVA at Basic Prices	7.2	8.6
GDP	8.2	9.2

[Primary Sector: Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry & Fishing and Mining & Quarrying

Secondary Sector: Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas, Water supply & Other Utility Services and Construction

Tertiary Sector: Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and Services related to Broadcasting, Financial, Real Estate & Professional Services and Public Administration, Defence & Other Services]

Revisions in the estimates of the year 2022-23

19. The use of latest available data from various agencies has resulted in changes in both the levels of GVA and growth estimates for the years 2022-23.

Revisions in Major Aggregates

20. The level of revisions in the major aggregates at current and constant (2011-12) prices are given in the following table:

Major National Income Aggregates and their % Changes

(₹ in Lakh Crore)

Sl. No.	Item	2022-23
Sl. No.	Item	1st RE	Final Estimates	% change
At Current Prices
1	GVA at basic prices	246.59	246.47	-0.1
2	GDP	269.50	268.90	-0.2
3	GNI	265.79	265.20	-0.2
4	NNI	234.39	233.91	-0.2
5	GNDI	273.99	273.39	-0.2
At Constant Prices
1	GVA at basic prices	148.05	148.78	0.5
2	GDP	160.71	161.65	0.6
3	GNI	158.31	159.39	0.7
4	NNI	137.47	138.51	0.8

Major reasons for revisions in GVA/GDP estimates for FY 2022-23 are as given below:

Use of updated production estimates (Final Estimates) of horticulture crops from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, increase in area under fodder crop and increase in production of sugarcane.
Increase in input value due to use of Cost of Cultivation Survey (CCS) 2022-23 and Electricity tariff for agriculture sector for the year 2022-23.
Use of updated information from NDE and updated information on minor minerals from States in case of Mining & Quarrying sector.
Use of final results of Annual Survey of Industries (ASI): 2022-23 and augmented data for non-financial private corporate sector.
Use of ‘Actuals’ in place of ‘Revised Estimates’ of different items of expenditure and receipts in the Central & State government budgets.
Use of updated information on Local Bodies & Autonomous Institutions.
Use of latest annual reports of Public Sector Enterprises.
Use of latest data received for Cooperative Banks, Post Office Saving Bank (POSB), Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFIs), and Financial Auxiliaries.

Detailed statements

21. List of Statements released in part ‘B’ of the press note is given below. More details of the revised estimates, i.e., FRE 2023-24 and FE 2022-23 are available in Statements 1.1B to 9B of Annexure C, which are given in the PDF format of the press note.

Statement 1.1B: Key Aggregates of National Accounts at Current Prices
Statement 1.2B: Key Aggregates of National Accounts at Constant (2011-12) Prices
Statement 2B: Per Capita Income, Product and Final Consumption
Statement 3.1B: Output by Economic Activity and Capital Formation by Industry of Use at Current Prices
Statement 3.2B: Output by Economic Activity and Capital Formation by Industry of Use at Constant (2011-12) Prices
Statement 4.1B: Gross Value Added by Economic Activity at Current Basic Prices
Statement 4.2B: Gross Value Added by Economic Activity at Constant (2011-12) Basic Prices
Statement 5B: Finances for Gross Capital Formation
Statement 6.1B: Gross Capital Formation by Industry of Use at Current Prices
Statement 6.2B: Gross Capital Formation by Industry of Use at Constant (2011-12) Prices
Statement 7.1B: Gross Fixed Capital Formation by Asset & Institutional Sector at Current Prices
Statement 7.2B: Gross Fixed Capital Formation by Asset & Institutional Sector at Constant (2011-12) Prices
Statement 8.1B: Private Final Consumption Expenditure at Current Prices
Statement 8.2B: Private Final Consumption Expenditure at Constant (2011-12) Prices
Statement 9B: Institutional Sectors – Key Economic Indicators at Current Prices

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Annexure C

FORMULAE

GVA at basic prices (Production Approach) = Output at basic prices – Intermediate Consumption
GVA at basic prices (Income Approach) = CE + OS/MI + CFC + Production taxes less Production subsidies⁽ⁱ⁾
GDP = ∑ GVA at basic prices + Product taxes less Product subsidies⁽ⁱⁱ⁾
NDP/NNI = GDP/GNI – CFC
GNI = GDP + Net primary income from ROW (Receipts less payments)
Primary Incomes = CE + Property and Entrepreneurial Income
NNDI =NNI + other current transfers⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ from ROW, net (Receipts less payments)
GNDI = NNDI + CFC = GNI + other current transfers⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ from ROW, net (Receipts less payments)
Gross Capital Formation^(iv) (Financing Side) = Gross Savings + Net Capital Inflow from ROW
GCF (Expenditure Side) = GFCF + CIS + Valuables
Gross Disposable Income of Govt. = GFCE + Gross Saving of General Government
Gross Disposable Income (GDI) of Households = GNDI – GDI of Govt. – Gross Savings of All Corporations

REMARKS ON THE FORMULAE

Production taxes or subsidies are paid or received with relation to production and are independent of the volume of actual production. Some examples are:

Production Taxes – Land Revenues, Stamps & Registration fees and Tax on profession

Production Subsidies – Subsidies to Railways, Subsidies to village and small industries.

Product taxes or subsidies are paid or received on per unit of product. Some examples are:

Product Taxes- Goods & Service Tax, Excise duties, Sales tax, Service Tax and Import, Export duties

Product Subsidies- Food, Petroleum and fertilizer subsidies.

Other Current Transfers refers to current transfers other than the primary incomes.

Gross Capital Formation (GCF) at the current as well as the constant prices is estimated by two approaches: – (i) through flow of funds, derived as Gross Saving plus net capital flow from Rest of the World (RoW); and (ii) by the commodity flow approach, derived by the type of assets.

Click here to see Press Note in PDF format

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MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

March 1, 2025

MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: 10,000 FPOs Achieved under Government’s Flagship Scheme
Source: Government of India

10,000 FPOs Achieved under Government’s Flagship Scheme

A Step Towards Atmnirbhar Krishi

Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 3:21PM by PIB Delhi

Introduction

The Central Sector Scheme for “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 29th February, 2020. The scheme was launched with a budget outlay of ₹6,865 Crore till 2027-28. Since the launch of the scheme, ₹254.4 Crore in equity grants has been released to 4,761 FPOs and credit guarantee cover worth ₹453 Cr. has been issued to 1,900 FPOs.[1]

[2]

Recently, on the occasion of the release of the 19^th instalment of PM-KISAN in Bhagalpur, Bihar, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the 10,000^th FPO. The 10,000^th FPO has been registered in Khagaria district and focuses on maize, banana, and paddy. FPOs are not just organizations but an unprecedented force to increase farmers’ income and provide small farmers with direct access to significant market benefits, bargaining power and improving market access. Approximately 30 lakh farmers in the country are connected to FPOs, with around 40 percent of them being women. These FPOs are now conducting business worth thousands of crores in the agricultural sector.[3]

Under this scheme, there is a provision for handholding support for a period of five years to each new FPO formed, and financial assistance to the tune of Rs.18 lakhs to each FPO under the scheme towards management cost for 3 years. Additionally, matching equity grant upto Rs. 2,000 per farmer member of FPO with a limit of Rs. 15.00 lakh per FPO and a credit guarantee facility upto Rs. 2 crore of project loan per FPO from eligible lending institutions to ensure institutional credit accessibility to FPOs[4]

What are FPOs?

Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) is a generic name, which refers to farmer- producers’ organization incorporated/ registered either under Part IXA of Companies Act or under Co-operative Societies Act of the concerned States and formed for the purpose of leveraging collectives through economies of scale in production and marketing of agricultural and allied sector.

The concept behind Farmer Producer Organizations is that farmers, who are the producers of agricultural products, can form groups. To facilitate this process, the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) was mandated by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, to support the State Governments in the formation of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).[5]

The “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” scheme was launched with the main focus on leveraging economies of scale in production and marketing with a view to enhance productivity through efficient, cost effective and sustainable resource use for ensuring sustainable income-oriented farming, thus helping in reduction of cost of farm production and increase in farmers’ income.[6]

Need for FPOs
- Small, marginal and landless farmers face tremendous challenges during agriculture production phase such as for access to technology, quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides including requisite finances.
- They also face tremendous challenges in marketing their produce due to lack of economic strength.
- FPOs help in collectivization of such small, marginal and landless farmers in order to give them the collective strength to deal with such issues. Members of the FPO will manage their activities together in the organization to get better access to technology, input, finance and market for faster enhancement of their income.[7]
OBJECTIVES
1. To provide holistic and broad-based supportive ecosystem to form 10000 new FPOs to facilitate development of vibrant and sustainable income-oriented farming and for overall socio-economic development and wellbeing of agrarian communities.
2. To enhance productivity through efficient, cost-effective and sustainable resource use and realize higher returns through better liquidity and market linkages for their produce and become sustainable through collective action.
3. To provide handholding and support to new FPOs up to five years from the year of its creation in all aspects of management of FPO, inputs, production, processing and value addition, market linkages, credit linkages and use of technology etc.
4. To provide effective capacity building to FPOs to develop agriculture entrepreneurship skills to become economically viable and self-sustaining beyond the period of support from the government.[8]
Convergence of Ministries for FPOs in India-
1. Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare: Supports FPOs in getting seed, pesticides and fertilizer licenses, and helps in providing dealership through Agri Input companies. With this assistance, FPOs are able to work as dealers/distributors and generate income. The Ministry also supports FPOs by linking them to Institutional buyers and through ecommerce platforms like ONDC, e-NAM etc.[11]
2. Ministry of Food Processing: Support for FPOs through financial outlays, such as providing credit-linked capital subsidy @ 35% of the eligible project cost, 50% financial grant for branding and marketing.[12]
3. Ministry of Micro & Small Enterprises: Special provisions for FPOs such as access to funds in the form of FPO management cost, equity grant and credit guarantee facility apart from capacity building trainings, marked and credit linkages. [13]
4. Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying: Benefits and schemes tailored to FPOs, such as “Supporting Dairy Cooperatives and Farmer Producer organizations engaged in dairy activities” with a total allocation of Rs. 500 Cr during 2021-22 to 2025-26.[14] Additionally, forming and promoting 100 Fodder Plus FPOs through NDDB (National Dairy Development Board).[15]
5. APEDA (Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority): APEDA provides assistance to APEDA registered FPOs for export and MSME under its scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), which provides assistance for setting up enterprises.[16]
6. Spices Board: The Sustainability in Spice Sector through Progressive, Innovative and Collaborative Interventions for Export Development (SPICED) scheme is designed to expand area and improve productivity of Cardamom (small & large). It also aimed at generating an exportable surplus of quality spices through post-harvest improvement, export promotion of spices, increasing the share of value-added spices in the export basket, evaluating compliance of export consignments with applicable standards of quality and safety, capacity building & skill development of stakeholders etc. [17]
[18]

Services and Activities undertaken by FPOs

The FPOs provide and undertake following relevant major services and activities for their development:
1. Supply quality production inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticides and such other inputs at reasonably lower wholesale rates
2. Make available need-based production and post-production machinery and equipment like cultivator, tiller, sprinkler set, combine harvester and such other machinery and equipment on custom hiring basis for members to reduce the per 2 unit production cost
3. Make available value addition like cleaning, assaying, sorting, grading, packing and also farm level processing facilities at user charge basis on reasonably cheaper rate. Storage and transportation facilities may also be made available
4. Undertake higher income generating activities like seed production, bee keeping, mushroom cultivation etc
5. Undertake aggregation of smaller lots of farmer-members’ produce; add value to make them more marketable
6. Facilitate market information about the produce for judicious decision in production and marketing
7. Facilitate logistics services such as storage, transportation, loading/un-loading etc. on shared cost basis.
8. Market the aggregated produce with better negotiation strength to the buyers and in the marketing channels offering better and remunerative prices[19]
Initiatives under the scheme

Credit Guarantee Fund: FPOs need finance, both grants and loans, to quickly establish input collectivisation, working capital, marketing and improved services to member farmers. Considering FPOs’ need for credit from formal financial institutions, a dedicated Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) has been created under the Central Sector Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs. CGF provides credit guarantee cover to financial institutions for extending loans to FPOs.[20]

ONDC platform: Almost 5 thousand out of 8,000 registered Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) have been registered on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) portal for selling the produce online to consumers across the country. The onboarding of FPOs on ONDC to reach out to their buyers in any part of the country is in line with the Central government objective of providing growers with better market access. The move aims to empower FPOs with direct access to digital marketing, online payment, business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions.[21]

MoU to convert 10,000 FPOs into CSCs: An MoU between CSC SPV (Common Services Centres Special Purpose Vehicle) and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare was signed to convert FPOs registered under ‘Formation & Promotion of 10,000 FPOs scheme’ into CSCs and help them to deliver citizen-centric services. As per the MoU, 10,000 FPOs will be converted into CSCs. CSC SPV will enable them to provide the services that are available on the Digital Seva Portal. The delivery of CSC services through FPOs is aimed at increasing employment opportunities in rural areas.[22]

[23]

FPOs provide special focus to include small, marginal and women farmers/women SHGs, SC/ST farmers and other economically weaker categories etc. as members to make FPOs more effective and inclusive.

How to Apply

FPOs/FPCs can register on e-NAM Portal via website (www.enam.gov.in) or mobile app or providing following details at nearest e-NAM mandi:
- Name of FPOs/ FPCs
- Name, address, email Id and contact no. of authorized person (MD/CEO /Manager)
- Bank account Details (Name of Bank, Branch, Account no. IFSC Code)[24]
Conclusion

Formation & promotion of FPOs is the first step for converting Krishi into Atmanirbhar Krishi. The successful formation of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) under the Central Sector Scheme marks a transformative milestone for the agriculture sector. By fostering collectivization, enhancing market access, and providing financial and institutional support, this initiative has empowered millions of small and marginal farmers, including women and economically weaker sections. This achievement not only boosts agricultural productivity and income but also contributes to rural job creation and economic resilience. As India moves forward, the continued support and expansion of FPOs will be instrumental in shaping a self-reliant, efficient, and prosperous agricultural ecosystem.

References:

Click here to see PDF.

*****

Santosh Kumar/ Ritu Kataria/ Kritika Rane

(Release ID: 2106913) Visitor Counter : 88

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –
March 1, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: City leaders reaffirm that innovation and growth remains priority

Source: City of Leeds

In response to the Government’s announcement of delays to the development of the new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary, leaders from Leeds City Council, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to innovation and growth across the city.

The partnership has confirmed it would continue to deliver on its long-term vision for driving innovation and growth in the city to create a healthier, greener and more inclusive future for all.

This follows the confirmation of funding and a start date of between 2033 and 2035 for the development of the new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary.

Despite the Government’s announcement of delays to the development of the new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary, City leaders are pleased to announce that plans for the Leeds Innovation Village, a key neighbourhood within the city’s £2 billion Leeds innovation Arc, and one of the flagship projects of the £160 million West Yorkshire Investment Zone – will still go ahead, with ambitions to start construction later this year.

The Village, which is set to bring about £13 billion in economic growth for the city and around 4,000 jobs will continue and is already into its first phase. This includes the redevelopment of the Old Medical School on the Leeds General Infirmary site into a cutting-edge healthtech innovation hub by one of the UK’s most active, privately-owned, mixed-use developers, Scarborough Group International.

Dame Linda Pollard DBE DL Hon. LLD, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“Our plans for a new hospital are more than healthcare and play a pivotal role in harnessing innovation and stimulating growth across Leeds and beyond. Despite the announcement of disappointing delays to our new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary, plans for the Leeds Innovation Village will still go ahead, with early phases already underway.”

The development of a new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary, alongside wider plans to boost growth and innovation across the city, are a central part of the West Yorkshire Mayor’s local growth plan, which aims to boost the region’s fastest growing business sectors with a special focus on health and life sciences, in line with the Government’s emerging national industrial strategy.

This latest commitment builds on a wide range of successful innovation assets across the Innovation Arc including:

· The successful and vibrant community of innovators and entrepreneurs at Nexus, a state-of-the-art innovation hub on the University of Leeds campus. Nexus has raised £134m in private investment since launching in 2019, with a return on investment of £1.92 for every £1. To date, it has worked with 191 companies and brings together the brightest minds in business, technology and academia and cites over half of its member businesses as healthtech innovators.

· Leeds Teaching Hospital’s fast-growing Innovation Pop Up, located in the Innovation Village on the Leeds General Infirmary site, has grown its membership to over 50 industry members

during its first three years and is currently collaborating on around 40 projects with industry partners. The Pop Up brings work nationally and internationally to bring together world-leading clinicians and healthtech industry partners to grow innovation, research and technology for the benefit of patients.

· Leeds Becket University’s £80m Leeds School of Art building which provides industry standard facilities for over 2500 students and 100 staff studying and researching in film, TV, technology, sound, music, drama, dance and fashion. The centre provides wider cultural and industry partnerships across Leeds.

· An envisaged route of the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Mass Transit system would see trams run along the spine of the Innovation Arc, linking Leeds station and the South Bank to Harehills. This would bring modern, sustainable transport modes to the heart of the Innovation Arc, reducing north-south travel times, creating potential hubs around stops, and providing connections to the wider area.

The renewed commitment will see Leeds continue its journey as one of the UK’s most stable, forward-thinking and attractive locations for health and care research and innovation. With the backing of strong collaborative leadership, Leeds ranks as the third most attractive location for healthtech firms which are ready to launch or looking to move, having the highest number of biomedical scientist undergraduates in the country and being home to nine of the top 10 investors in research and development.*”

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said:

“As the home of NHS England and Europe’s largest teaching hospital, Leeds is an international magnet for health innovation, and there is no setback that can stop us from realising our potential.

“With our multimillion-pound Investment Zone driving the development of the Old Medical School into a world-leading centre of medical and technological innovation, we will deliver jobs and growth here in West Yorkshire while transforming the lives of patients worldwide.

“We will also continue to make the case for the all-important new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary to be built as soon as possible, as part of our wider plans to build a well-connected Innovation Arc across the city of Leeds through our new Mass Transit system, driving growth.

Councillor James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council said:

“We remain absolutely committed to our long-term vision for the city of stimulating innovation and economic growth that drives and delivers measurable impact towards a healthier, greener and inclusive future for all.

“The Leeds Innovation Village, a key neighbourhood within the city’s £2 billion Innovation Arc, will progress as planned, and we’re excited about the potential it holds to drive economic growth, create jobs, and improve healthcare. The transformation of the Old Medical School into a new cutting-edge health innovation hub will further solidify Leeds’ position as a global healthtech hub.”

-ENDS-

For further information, please contact Jessica Hardman, Head of Communications (BtLW), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Jessica.hardman3@nhs.net

Notes

This recommitment has been made by:

Professor Phil Wood, Chief Executive, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Cllr James Lewis, Leader, Leeds City Council; Tracy Brabin, Mayor, West Yorkshire Combined Authority; Professor Shearer West, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Leeds; Professor Peter Slee, Vice Chancellor, Leeds Beckett University.

*Pursing excellence report, an independent analysis of Leeds’ research and innovation in health and care, March 2024 (commissioned by Leeds Academic Health Partnership)

The Leeds Innovation Arc, the city’s £2billion city centre science park, is a global destination for people, investment and innovation in one of the UK’s fastest growing and greenest cities with an ecosystem addressing the biggest societal challenges of our time through collaborative, diverse and innovative solutions. The Arc is home to some of the most significant innovation assets in the north of England, both public and private sector, including our two biggest universities, the hospital and Nexus at the University of Leeds, a hub for an increasing number of innovative businesses including SeeAI, Itecho Health and Atlas Endoscopy.

Leeds City Council’s work as a city on innovation builds on our participation in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology Regional Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program (MIT REAP) which fueled Leeds’ drive to grow the regional innovation ecosystem and bench mark ourselves and our progress.

The Government review into the New Hospital Programme, which the new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary was part, has now concluded. The Secretary of State for Health announced on Monday 20 January that the new hospital at Leeds General Infirmary has been included in Wave 2 of the programme and will not now start construction until some time between 2033-2035.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

March 1, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – January 2025

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for the month of January 2025¹ collected from 41 select scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks, are set out in Statements I and II.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit² as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025³ grew at 12.5 per cent (a three-month high) as compared to 16.2 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year (January 26, 2024).

Highlights of the sectoral deployment of bank credit³ are given below:

Credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 12.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025 (20.0 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year).
Credit to industry recorded a growth of 8.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025, compared with 7.5 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year. Among major industries, outstanding credit to ‘petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels’, ‘basic metal and metal product’, ‘chemicals and chemical products’ and ‘all engineering’ recorded an accelerated growth.
Credit growth to services sector moderated to 13.8 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025 (21.0 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year), with a decelerated growth in credit to ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs) and trade segments. However, credit growth (y-o-y) to ‘computer software’ accelerated.
Credit to personal loans segment registered a growth of 14.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025, as compared with 18.2 per cent a year ago, largely due to decline in growth rate in ‘other personal loans’, ‘vehicle loans’ and ‘credit card outstanding’ segments.

Ajit Prasad
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)

Press Release: 2024-2025/2276

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Africa: African Development Bank, Pandemic Fund sign agreement to leverage resources for pandemic preparedness

Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, February 28, 2025/APO Group/ —

The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) Group has signed an agreement to become an implementing entity of the Pandemic Fund (https://apo-opa.co/4h0TQu3). This enables the Bank to coordinate financing of the Fund’s approved projects in Africa, as well as to participate in a call for proposals for financing investments scheduled to launch next month.

The financial procedures agreement, signed in January with the World Bank Group (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development acted as a trustee for the Pandemic Fund), qualifies the African Development Bank to participate in a share of $500 million in Fund Secretariat financing for proposals for pandemic-related programs, projects and policies, with a focus on low and middle-income countries.

The Pandemic Fund is a partnership among donor countries, co-investors, foundations and civil society organizations hosted by the World Bank. The World Health Organization acts as the technical lead. The Fund assists countries and regions to strengthen their health systems and increase their investments, enabling them to boost pandemic prevention, preparedness and response capacities.

“There is growing demand from African countries for support to overcome gaps in national health infrastructure exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and other health crises. As a Pandemic Fund implementing entity, the African Development Bank is capitalizing on our experience combining infrastructure financing with complementary support to improve the quality of life for the people of Africa,” said Dr. Beth Dunford, Bank Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development.

The Fund’s call for proposals will be in phases: the first phase will be open to single and multi-country proposals in March 2025; the second phase launches in June 2025 for regional proposals.

To date, the Pandemic Fund has financed two calls for proposals and approved 47 projects impacting 75 countries in six regions across the globe. On average, 43 percent of its resources have been allocated for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest demand for Pandemic Fund grants. Under the second call for proposals, more than half of the funds awarded went to sub-Saharan Africa.

As an implementing entity, the African Development Bank will also play an oversight role, providing implementation support to beneficiary implementing organisations, as well as providing financial and progress reports to the Fund’s Governing Board.

The Bank’s collaboration with the Pandemic Fund aligns with its Strategy for Quality Health Infrastructure in Africa that seeks to enhance healthcare infrastructure and improve health outcomes in Africa.

In June 2023, the Bank approved approximately $124 million in financing for healthcare access expansion in Morocco. The country’s “Program to Support Inclusive Access to Healthcare Infrastructure” inboosts the country’s specialized healthcare services in women and children’s centers, supports building and equipping hospitals, and equips remote sites with telemedicine and teleconsultation facilities.

Dunford says continued collaborating with the Pandemic Fund can help more Africans experience the benefits of strengthened healthcare systems.

“As Africa’s premier financial institution, we are ready to provide relevant support to beneficiary implementing organisations, the Bank’s regional member countries, and regional economic communities in the Pandemic Fund’s third call for proposals. The Bank will leverage resources from the Fund, alongside our funding instruments, for bigger and better results,” she added.

The Pandemic Fund was established in September 2022 with the Bank participating as an observer and formally announced two months later at the Group of 20 (G20) meetings in Bali, Indonesia.

MIL OSI Africa –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Swap Auction, February 28, 2025: Results

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Today, the Reserve Bank conducted a USD/INR Buy Sell swap auction for a notified amount of USD 10 billion as announced vide press release dated February 21, 2025.

I. SUMMARY RESULTS

Aggregate amount notified (USD Billion)	10.00
Total amount bid by participants (USD Billion)	16.23
Total amount accepted (USD Billion)	10.06
Cut-off premium (in paisa)	655.10

II. OTHER DETAILS

USD/INR Buy Sell Swap auction
No. of bids received	244
Bid to cover ratio	1.62
No. of bids accepted	161
Partial allotment as % of competitive bids at cut-off premium	NA
Weighted Average Premium of accepted bids (in paisa)	673.29
First leg settlement date	March 04, 2025
Second leg settlement date	March 06, 2028

Ajit Prasad
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)

Press Release: 2024-2025/2274

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Asian Development Blog: Hold the Salt: Harnessing Desalination for Water Security

Source: Asia Development Bank

Desalination offers a viable solution to water scarcity in the Pacific, but its success depends on careful planning, energy efficiency, and environmental considerations. Integrating renewable energy, engaging communities, and ensuring sustainable brine disposal are key to long-term viability.

The Pacific region is grappling with increasing water scarcity, driven largely by the impacts of climate change. Rising sea levels, prolonged droughts, and changing rainfall patterns have strained freshwater resources, leaving many coastal communities vulnerable.

As traditional water supplies become less reliable and populations continue to grow, the need for innovative and climate-resilient solutions has never been more urgent. However, implementing alternative technologies like desalination requires careful consideration to ensure its effectiveness, sustainability, and community acceptance.

Desalination involves the removal of salts and impurities from brackish water and seawater sources to produce potable water. However, removing salt from water is an energy intensive treatment process. The most widely used desalination method is reverse osmosis, as it has the lowest energy usage of the available and mature desalination technologies.

Reverse osmosis uses semi-permeable membranes and hydraulic pressure to filter out contaminants including salt. While this technology offers significant advantages in providing a reliable water source, it also presents challenges, especially in remote areas and emergency contexts where resources and infrastructure may be limited.

Before deploying desalination technology, it is crucial to assess the specific site conditions, including the quality of the salty water available for treatment. The salinity level, temperature, and presence of contaminants such as sediments or organic materials can significantly impact the performance of the desalination system.

In emergency contexts, the water intake may be compromised due to increased sediment loads or bacterial contamination from natural disasters. A robust pre-treatment process is essential to protect reverse osmosis membranes and maintain operational efficiency.

Pre-treatment systems should be designed to remove larger particles, suspended solids, and biological contaminants, ensuring that only water suitable for the membrane elements enters the desalination unit.

Energy consumption is also a critical factor when considering desalination technologies. Reverse osmosis systems can be energy-intensive, requiring between three and five kilowatt-hours per 1,000 litres of water produced.

In remote settings, reliable energy sources may be challenging to secure. It is essential to evaluate available energy options before implementation. Integrating renewable energy sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines, can help mitigate energy costs and reduce the carbon footprint of desalination systems, particularly in remote settings.

Portable desalination units are largely powered by generators during emergencies, but careful planning for fuel supply and maintenance is necessary to ensure continuous operation.

Desalination technology has the potential to play a pivotal role in addressing water scarcity challenges faced by remote and coastal communities, especially during emergencies.

Effective operation and maintenance are vital for the long-term success of desalination projects. In remote and emergency settings, local capacity may be limited, making it crucial to establish training programs for technicians. Investing in local training not only builds community skills but also fosters ownership and sustainability in water management.

A comprehensive maintenance plan should include routine checks of the desalination unit, regular cleaning of pre-treatment filters, and periodic replacement of reverse osmosis membranes.

Ensuring that local operators are equipped with the knowledge and tools needed for maintenance will enhance the reliability and efficiency of desalination systems. This is especially important for emergency units that may be intermittently used and stored for long periods between use.

The environmental implications of desalination must be carefully considered, particularly concerning brine disposal. The concentrated saline byproduct generated during the desalination process can have negative effects on marine ecosystems if not managed properly.

To mitigate these impacts, brine should be dispersed across a wide area rather than discharged in a single location. Additionally, a lower salinity, higher volume brine can be produced by operating the reverse osmosis unit at a low recovery rate.

This practice helps prevent localized salinity increases that can harm marine life. Engaging with environmental experts and local authorities to develop responsible brine management strategies is essential for sustainable desalination practices.

Community involvement is paramount when implementing desalination technology. Engaging local populations in discussions about the technology, its benefits, and potential challenges fosters a sense of ownership and acceptance.

Providing education on water management and desalination processes will help demystify the technology and encourage responsible use of water resources. Building trust within the community is crucial for the success of desalination projects.

Collaboration with local stakeholders, including government agencies and non-governmental organizations, can help address concerns and ensure that the technology aligns with community needs.

The initial investment for desalination technology can be significant, and ongoing operational costs must be evaluated to ensure long-term sustainability. It is essential to conduct a cost-benefit analysis that considers factors such as energy consumption, maintenance requirements, and the expected lifespan of the equipment.

Exploring funding opportunities from government programs, international organizations, and public-private partnerships can help offset the financial burden. Engaging with development partners can also provide technical assistance and capacity-building support to ensure the successful implementation of desalination systems.

Desalination technology has the potential to play a pivotal role in addressing water scarcity challenges faced by remote and coastal communities, especially during emergencies.

However, careful consideration of site conditions, energy requirements, operational needs, environmental impacts, community engagement, and funding opportunities are essential for effective implementation.

As we move toward a future that is increasingly affected by climate change, harnessing the power of desalination with thoughtful planning and community involvement will be critical in building water resilience across the Pacific. By investing in these technologies and empowering local communities, we can create sustainable solutions that secure safe drinking water for generations to come.

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: BSTDB Strengthens Partnership with Hayat Kimya in Türkiye

Source: Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

Press Release | 17-Dec-2024

New Financing to Boost Capacity and Energy Efficiency

Hayat Kimya Sanayi A.Ş., a leading Turkish manufacturer of detergents, hygiene products, and tissue paper, will advance its investment plans with the support of a €25 million loan from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB). The agreement marks an important milestone in a partnership that began nine years ago.

The BSTDB financing will back Hayat Kimya’s investment program, focusing on expanding production capacity, introducing new product lines, and enhancing energy efficiency. This initiative is also expected to bolster regional trade, as a significant portion of the company’s exports targets BSTDB member countries.

Commenting on the agreement, BSTDB President Dr. Serhat Köksal said: “We are pleased to support Hayat Kimya, a leading manufacturer and major employer in Türkiye, as it pursues its ambitious growth plans. Our new financing underlines BSTDB’s commitment to sustainable industrial development and regional integration. By prioritizing energy efficiency and environmentally conscious practices, Hayat Kimya’s investment programme aligns with our mission to support projects that drive long-term economic and environmental benefits. Our support will help modernize Türkiye’s industrial capacity and strengthen trade ties within the Black Sea region, advancing shared prosperity and sustainable development.”

“As part of our collaboration with the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, we will increase the production capacity of our home care category at our facilities in Mersin and Kocaeli, Turkey. Today, at least one Hayat product can be found in 9 out of 10 households in Turkey. Globally, our export penetration ranges between 60% and 80% across more than 100 countries. With this new investment in the home care category, we aim to further strengthen our leadership, particularly in the detergent product segment.” said Ayla Hacıahmetoğlu, the Global Treasury Director of Hayat Kimya.

Founded in 1937, Hayat Kimya is a leading global manufacturer and exporter of detergents, hygiene products, and tissue paper. The company operates 26 state-of-the-art production facilities across 8 countries, employing over 10,000 people. All products are produced in a fully automated, hands-free environment, meticulously designed and managed in compliance with the ISO 9001 Quality Assurance System.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.

Contact: Haroula Christodoulou

: @BSTDB

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: BSTDB President’s New Year Message

Source: Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

News | 24-Dec-2024

Dear Shareholders, Partners, Friends, and Colleagues,

As we celebrate the New Year and the 25th anniversary of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), we reflect with gratitude on a remarkable journey shaped by resilience, partnership, and shared purpose. Together, we’ve overcome challenges and created opportunities, building a legacy of sustainable growth across the Black Sea region.

Looking ahead to 2025, we are filled with optimism. The completion of our new premises will strengthen our capabilities, enabling us to drive innovation and foster greater prosperity in the region. With your continued trust and collaboration, we are ready to turn bold ambitions into impactful results.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Together, let’s make 2025 extraordinary.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a prosperous, Happy New Year!

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: BSTDB, TBC Bank to Boost Local Currency Financing in Georgia

Source: Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

Press Release | 11-Feb-2025

New Partnership to Strengthen SMEs in the Country

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) has extended a GEL 135 million local-currency loan to TBC Bank Georgia. The financing will be on-lent to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to support their investment programmes, working capital needs, and expansion into domestic and international markets, thus enhancing SMEs’ competitiveness and export capacity.

In addition, the funding will boost local-currency financing opportunities for private companies while reducing their dependence on foreign currency borrowings and protecting business owners from direct exposure to exchange rate risk.

“Our new agreement with TBC Bank reinforces our commitment to fostering long-term partnerships while advancing access to local currency financing for Georgian small businesses,” said Dr. Serhat Köksal, BSTDB President. “By boosting lending in Georgian Lari, we aim to support economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen businesses’ ability to succeed in their domestic markets. This initiative also enhances the resilience and competitiveness of Georgia’s banking sector by mitigating currency risks.”

Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, CEO, TBC Bank, commented: “We are delighted to continue and further strengthen our cooperation with BSTDB. This transaction reflects both institutions’ strong commitment to support Georgian MSMEs, which are key contributors to economic growth and job creation in the country. On the back of supporting de-dollarisation of the financial sector, this facility will further strengthen TBC’s position as a leading local currency provider on the market. I would like to thank BSTDB for being a long-standing supporter of TBC and look forward to executing many more successful deals in the future”.

BSTDB has been cooperating with TBC Group since 2003, providing over USD 192 million in revolving trade finance, SME finance, and leasing facilities.

TBC Bank Group PLC (“TBC PLC”) is a public limited company registered in England and Wales and is the parent company of TBC Bank Georgia and TBC Uzbekistan. TBC Bank Georgia, together with its subsidiaries, is the leading financial services group in Georgia, with a total market share of 38.7% of customer loans and 38.4% of customer deposits as of 30 September 2024, according to data published by the National Bank of Georgia. TBC PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TBCG and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index Series and the MSCI United Kingdom Small Cap Index.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.

Contact: Haroula Christodoulou

: @BSTDB

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: BSTDB Clarifies No Affiliation with the Black Sea Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Source: Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

Press Release | 25-Feb-2025

Reaffirmation of our Distinct Identity as a Multilateral Financial Institution

Following the announcement of EU sanctions concerning the Black Sea Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ChBRR, in Russian – ЧБРР, based in Simferopol, Crimea), the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is issuing this public clarification to unequivocally state that BSTDB has no (no) affiliation, connection, or dealings with the Black Sea Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

BSTDB is an International Financial Institution established by an intergovernmental treaty, comprising eleven Member States from the Black Sea region. Headquartered in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Bank was established under an intergovernmental treaty registered with the United Nations (Multilateral, No. 36909) and operates in accordance with international standards.

BSTDB remains committed to its mission of promoting economic development and regional cooperation across the Black Sea region and underscores its distinct and separate identity from any similarly named organizations.

To avoid any misrepresentation, BSTDB also urges all media outlets and stakeholders to ensure the correct use of its official logo and branding in any related reporting.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.

Contact: Haroula Christodoulou

: @BSTDB

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: BSTDB and TuranBank Partner to Boost Small Businesses in Azerbaijan

Source: Black Sea Trade and Development Bank

Press Release | 28-Feb-2025

Promoting Sustainable Growth and Trade in the Country

To facilitate development and growth in Azerbaijan, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) has extended the Azeri Manat equivalent of a USD 6 million loan to TuranBank. The funds will be channeled to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to meet their investment programmes and working capital needs, as well as enhance their trade activity.

In addition, the funding will also expand access to local-currency financing for private companies, further reducing their reliance on foreign currency borrowings and protecting business owners from direct exposure to exchange rate risks.

“BSTDB is pleased to continue its partnership with TuranBank to empower SMEs in the country, giving them access to resources they need to grow, innovate and drive inclusive economic progress. This will help unlock employment opportunities and foster sustainable development both within the country and across the region. We are confident that our joint efforts will continue to deliver meaningful results in the future.”, said Dr. Serhat Köksal, BSTDB President.

“The funds raised in local currency will be allocated to financing the real sector, particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, which are the primary focus of the bank’s strategic objectives. This will also help support entrepreneurs operating in the regions. This agreement further underscores international financial institutions’ confidence in the long-term stability and sustainable development of our bank as a reliable partner,” said Orkhan Garayev, Chairman of the Management of TuranBank OJSC.

BSTDB has been cooperating with TuranBank since 2011, having provided revolving trade finance and SME finance facilities that have benefited dozens of beneficiaries.

Established in 1992 and headquartered in Baku, TuranBank OJSC is a mid-sized bank expanding to 22 sales points across the country. The bank is one of the key participants in the country’s financial sector, distinguished by its stability and reliability. For detailed information about the products and services offered by TuranBank, visit https://www.turanbank.az/en/pages/1, or follow its social media pages.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.

Contact:
Haroula Christodoulou
E-mail: cchristodoulou@bstdb.org
Phone: +30 2310 290533
Twitter: @BSTDB; @Haroulax

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Beyond Finance, Afreximbank’s Impact Stories series spotlights Africa’s growth and economic potential

Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

CAIRO, Egypt, February 28, 2025/APO Group/ —

Afreximbank (www.Afreximbank.com) is pleased to announce the launch of its new documentary series titled – Impact Stories, which aims to showcase the development impact of the Bank’s interventions across various sectors and countries on the continent and in the diaspora. Season One of the series consists of six episodes which went on air on Afreximbank TV (https://apo-opa.co/43aD48x) on 27th February 2025.

Produced by the Afreximbank TV team and CNN’s Create Studio services, the series aims to spotlight the Bank’s interventions, incorporating multi-faceted narratives that bring the Bank’s initiatives to life. Through testimonials of individuals, businesses, communities and economies that have been positively impacted by the interventions, the series creates an emotional connection, and a shared commitment of an African vision focused on transforming trade and economic self-determination.

Filmed across six countries and sectors, the inaugural season consists of six episodes that showcase some of Afreximbank’s development impact through inspiring short documentary-style films. The episodes feature the Zimborders Beitbridge project which involves the expansion, upgrade and improvement of Beitbridge Border Post in Zimbabwe, exploring the transformative effect of Afreximbank’s investment in modernising the border post, and showing how improved infrastructure is addressing trade inefficiencies, fostering intra-African trade and driving regional growth.

Other episodes include the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ) in Benin, a project led by Afreximbank investee company, Arise Integrated Industrial Platform (Arise IIP) focused on driving industrialisation, job creation and end-to-end production on the continent; an episode on Oando PLC, showcasing their successful acquisition in a key Nigerian oil sector joint venture and its transformative impact on local content and economic prosperity, as well as other episodes focused on Eva’s Coffee in Kenya, an SME business driving export development and local value chain expansion; Reine Ablaa – a rising music star and alumni of Afreximbank’s CANEX Music factory initiative and an episode on the ongoing success of the Bank’s Pan African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS).

Mrs. Anne Ezeh, Director of Communications and Events at Afreximbank emphasised the Bank’s transformative role stating: “Afreximbank was founded to drive Africa’s economic independence through trade and trade-enabling infrastructure. For the past thirty-two years, we have consistently translated that mandate into impactful projects and initiatives across the continent. The Impact Stories series represents an avenue to showcase the tangible progress we are making to transform the economic fortunes of the African people while reminding us of the development challenges that remain.”

Impact storytelling goes beyond traditional creative metrics; it’s about people and economies whose everyday realities have been positively impacted by projects and developmental interventions. Compelling impact storytelling combines data, evidence, and personal stories, making them potent tools for advocating positive shifts and motivating others to champion a cause.

The first episode went on air on February 27th on Afreximbank TV, and new episodes will be released weekly.

MIL OSI Africa –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UK chief finance minister builds on commitment to support mutual growth in South Africa at G20
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Press release

UK chief finance minister builds on commitment to support mutual growth in South Africa at G20

The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP shared the UK’s growth mission with key stakeholders and her G20 counterparts in South Africa this week.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves with South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.

Over the past two days in Cape Town, the UK’s chief finance minister, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, spent time in and around the G20 finance ministerial meetings emphasising that the UK’s relationship with South Africa is key to the delivery of the UK’s Growth Mission for the mutual benefit of both our countries.

The Chancellor emphasised the significance of South Africa to her counterparts at the G20, highlighting that the UK is the largest investor in the country, with UK companies having invested over R500 billion.

Building on UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s recent agreement to develop a UK-South Africa Growth Partnership with Minister Lamola, she reiterated that free trade is the best way to achieve economic growth internationally and demonstrated how the UK is meeting the ambition to drive job creation in our two economies.

Infrastructure was a major theme at the G20 meetings the Chancellor attended, given the need to ensure that people can do their jobs and get around with improved railways and roads to facilitate economic growth. Which is why she said the UK is helping to accelerate projects in South Africa, including promoting the involvement of UK companies and sharing government expertise.

The Chancellor announced the next stage of the UK programme boosting urban economic development in South Africa, unlocking opportunities through improved urban planning and infrastructure in disadvantaged areas of the country’s municipalities. The intention is to strengthen UK cooperation with local governments in South Africa, to build their financial and technical capabilities.

A highlight of her time in SA was a visit was to the V&A Waterfront, where the Chancellor witnessed the unveiling of the design for the R25 billion expansion project, which has been produced by UK architects Heatherwick Studio. She also welcomed the news that British engineering firm Arup had won key contracts to support South Africa’s ambitions to boost green and sustainable growth across the country, not only contributing to the design of more resilient infrastructure but also working with public and private sector clients to improve the energy efficiency of buildings here in Cape Town and across South Africa.

The Chancellor also attended a reception at the High Commissioner’s official residence for prominent South African investors and businesses to further deepen the close economic ties between the UK and South Africa.

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Published 28 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI: Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Notice of Annual General Meeting
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

OMA SAVINGS BANK PLC STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE, 28 FEBRUARY 2025 AT 09.20 A.M EET, NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Notice of Annual General Meeting

NOTICE TO GENERAL MEETING

The shareholders of Oma Savings Bank Plc are invited to the Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday 8 April 2025 at 13.00 p.m. (EEST) at Scandic Helsinki Hub, Annankatu 18, Helsinki. The reception of persons who have registered for the meeting and distribution of voting tickets will begin at 11.00 a.m. (EEST) at the Meeting venue. Refreshments will be served before the meeting starting at 11:30 a.m.

The new CEO will be introduced before the Annual General Meeting starting at 12.15 p.m. It is possible to follow the introduction of the CEO and the General Meeting via webcast. Instructions on how to follow the webcast are available on the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025. It is not possible to ask questions, make counterproposals, make other interventions, or vote via webcast. Following the meeting via webcast shall not be considered as participation in the General Meeting or as the exercise of shareholders’ rights.

Prior to the meeting, shareholders may also submit written questions referred to in Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act on matters to be discussed at the meeting. Instructions on how to submit written questions are set out in Section C of this notice to the General Meeting.

A. Matters to be discussed at the General Meeting

1. Opening the Meeting

2. Matters of order for the Meeting

3. Election of the persons to scrutinize the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes

4. Recording the legal convening of the Meeting and quorum

5. Establishment of the persons present and confirmation of the voting list

6. Presentation of the financial statements, annual report and auditor’s report for the year 2024

Presentation of the CEO’s review.
As of 14 March 2025, the financial statements, the annual report and the auditor’s report are available on the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

7. Adoption of the financial statements

8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and the distribution of dividend

The Board of Directors proposes that based on the balance sheet adopted for the financial year 2024, a dividend of EUR 0.36 per share be paid, totaling approximately EUR 12.0 million, and that the remainder of the distributable assets will be left in equity.

The dividend shall be paid to shareholders registered in the register of shareholders of the Company maintained by Euroclear Finland Ltd on the record date of 10 April 2025. The Board of Directors proposes that the dividend shall be paid out on 17 April 2025 in accordance with the rules of Euroclear Finland Ltd.

9. Resolution on the discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the President and CEO from liability

10. Handling of the remuneration policy for governing bodies

The Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting approves the updated remuneration policy. In accordance with the Finnish Companies Act, the decision is advisory.

The proposal for the Company’s remuneration policy for governing bodies is attached to this notice as Annex 1 and is available on Oma Savings Bank Plc’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

11. Handling of the Remuneration Report for governing bodies

As of 14 March 2025, the remuneration report for governing bodies will be available on the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

12. Resolution on the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors

The Shareholders’ Nomination Committee proposes that remuneration for the members of the Board of Directors to be paid as follows:

Annual fees:
- Chairperson of the Board EUR 85,000
- Vice Chairperson of the Board EUR 60,000
- Other members of the Board EUR 40,000
- Chairperson of the Remuneration Committee EUR 6,000
- Chairperson of the Risk Committee EUR 9,000
- Chairperson of the Audit Committee EUR 9,000
Meeting fees:
- Board or Committee meeting EUR 1,000
- Email meeting of the Board or Committee EUR 500
The Shareholders’ Nomination Committee proposes that 25 percent of the annual remuneration of the Board of Directors be paid from the market in Oma Savings Bank Plc’s shares acquired on behalf of the members of the Board of Directors. The shares will be acquired directly on behalf of the members of the Board of Directors at a price formed on the market in public trading when the interim report for the period from 1 January to 31 March 2025 has been published. The Company is responsible for the costs of acquiring the shares and any transfer tax. The rest of the annual fee is paid in cash to cover the taxes arising from the fee.

In addition, Oma Savings Bank Plc pays or reimburses travel expenses and other expenses related to board work to the members of the Board of Directors.

13. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors

The Shareholders’ Nomination Committee proposes that seven members be elected for the Board of Directors.

14. Election of members of the Board of Directors

The Shareholders’ Nomination Committee proposes that the current Board members Juhana Brotherus, Irma Gillberg-Hjelt, Aki Jaskari, Jaakko Ossa, Carl Pettersson, Kati Riikonen and Juha Volotinen having given their consent, shall be re-elected.
1. All candidates are proposed to be elected for the period starting at the Annual General Meeting 2025 and ending at the Annual General Meeting 2026.
2. All nominees have given their consent to the election.
3. At the time of election, all proposed nominees are independent in their relationship with the Company and its significant shareholders.
4. Additional information on the members of the Board of Directors is available on the Company’s website https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.
15. Resolution on the remuneration of the auditor

The Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the reimbursements to the auditor are paid on the basis of reasonable invoicing approved by the Company.

16. Election of the auditor

The Board of Directors proposes that KPMG Oy Ab, a firm authorised public accountants, shall continue to be elected as the auditor for the term beginning at the end of the Annual General Meeting 2025 and ending at the Annual General Meeting 2026.

KPMG Oy Ab has indicated that if it is elected as an auditor M.Sc. (Econ.), APA Tuomas Ilveskoski would continue as auditor-in-charge.

17. Resolution on the remuneration of the sustainability reporting assurer

The Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the reimbursements to the sustainability reporting assurer are paid on the basis of reasonable invoicing approved by the Company.

18. Election of the sustainability reporting assurer

The Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the audit committee, proposes that KPMG Oy Ab, Authorized Sustainability Audit Firm, be elected as the Company’s sustainability reporting assurer for the term ending upon the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting. KPMG Oy Ab has informed the Company that Authorised Public Accountant (KHT), Authorized Sustainability Auditor (KRT) Tuomas Ilveskoski would act as the principally responsible sustainability reporting assurer.

19. Proposal by the Board of Directors to amend the Articles of Association

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that Section 6 (Nomination Committee) of the Company’s Articles of Association be amended by removing the provision regarding the due date for the Committee’s proposals.

The Board further proposes to the Annual General Meeting that Section 10 (Notice of the meeting) of the Company’s current Articles of Association be supplemented with a provision regarding remote meetings. According to the proposed addition, the General Meeting could, by a decision of the Board, be held without a physical meeting venue, allowing shareholders to exercise their decision-making rights in full and in real time through telecommunication and technical means (remote meeting). Shareholders would thus be able to exercise their right to ask questions and vote in the same manner as in a physical meeting.

Additionally, the Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that Section 12 (General meeting) of the Company’s current Articles of Association, concerning the General Meeting, be supplemented to include provisions on deciding the remuneration of the sustainability reporting auditor and the appointment of the sustainability reporting auditor.

The amended Articles of Association in their entirety are attached as Annex 2 to this notice of the Annual General Meeting.

20. Resolution on the revised Charter of the Shareholders’ Nomination Committee

The Shareholders’ Nomination Committee proposes that the Annual General Meeting resolve on the approval of the revised Charter of the Shareholders’ Nomination Committee.

The proposed amendments to the Charter include, among other things, a provision requiring the Nomination Committee to submit its proposals regarding the composition and remuneration of the Board of Directors to the Company’s Board no later than the end of the calendar month preceding the Board meeting that decides on convening the Annual General Meeting.

Additionally, the Charter is proposed to be amended to include a provision on the maximum continuous term of a Board member, ensuring alignment with the regulations, guidelines, and statements applicable to credit institutions, including the guidelines issued by the European Banking Authority (EBA).

The proposed amendments also include certain technical revisions.

The revised Charter in its proposed amended form is available on the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

21. Authorizing the Board of Directors to resolve on a share issue, the transfer of own shares and the issuance of special rights entitling to shares

The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorises the Board of Directors to resolve on the issuance of shares or transfer of the Company’s shares and the issuance of special rights entitling to shares referred to in Chapter 10, Section 1 of the Finnish Companies Act, subject to the following conditions:

Shares and special rights can be issued or disposed of in one or more instalments, either in return for payment or free of charge.

The total number of shares to be issued under the authorisation, including shares acquired on the basis of special rights, cannot exceed 3,000,000 shares, which corresponds to approximately 9 percent of the Company’s total number of shares on the day of the Annual General Meeting on the date of the notice of the meeting.

The Board of Directors decides on all terms and conditions related to the issuance of shares. The authorisation concerns both the issuance of new shares and the transfer of own shares. A share issue and the issuance of special rights entitling to shares include the right to deviate from the pre-emptive right of shareholders if there is a weighty financial reason for the Company (special issue). A special share issue may be free of charge only if there is a particularly weighty financial reason from the point of view of the Company and in the interest of all its shareholders.

The authorisation is proposed to be valid until the end of the next Annual General Meeting, but not later than 30 June 2026. The authorisation revokes previous authorisations given by the Annual General Meeting to decide on a share issue, as well as the option rights and the issuance of special rights entitling to shares.

22. Authorizing the Board of Directors to decide on the repurchase of the Company’s own shares

The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorise the Board of Directors to decide on the repurchase of the Company’s own shares with funds belonging to the Company’s free equity under the following conditions:

Maximum number of 1,000,000 own shares may be repurchased, representing approximately 3 percent of the Company’s total shares according to the situation on the date of the notice of the meeting, however, that the number of own shares held by the Company does not exceed 10 percent of the Company’s total shares of the Company at any time. This amount includes the own shares held by the Company itself and its subsidiaries within the meaning of Chapter 15, Section 11 (1) of the Finnish Companies Act.

The Board of Directors is authorised to decide how to acquire own shares.

Own shares may be repurchased otherwise than in proportion to the shares held by the shareholders (directed repurchase) at the price formed in public trading organized by Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd or at a price otherwise formed on the market. Own shares may be repurchased in one or more tranches.

Shares purchased by the Company may be held by it, cancelled or transferred. The Board of Directors decides on other matters related to the repurchasing of own shares.

The Board of Directors proposes that the authorisation repeal previous authorisations granted by the Annual General Meeting to decide on the repurchase of own shares.

It is proposed that the authorisation remain valid until the closing of the next Annual General Meeting, but not later than 30 June 2026.

23. Closing the meeting

B. Documents of the General Meeting

This notice, which contains all proposals for resolutions on the agenda of the General Meeting is available on Oma Savings Bank Plc’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025. Oma Savings Bank Plc’s financial statements, annual report, auditor’s report and remuneration report will be available on said website by 14 March 2025. The updated remuneration policy is attached to this notice and is also available at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025. Copies of the above-mentioned documents will be sent to shareholders on request, and they will also be available on the Annual General Meeting.

The minutes of the General Meeting will be available on the above-mentioned website from 22 April 2025 onwards.

C. Instructions for meeting participants

1. Shareholders registered in the shareholders’ register

Shareholders who are registered in the shareholders’ register of Euroclear Finland Oy on the record date of the General Meeting 27 March 2025 are entitled to participate the General Meeting. Any shareholder whose Company shares are recorded in their personal Finnish book-entry account is automatically included in the Company’s shareholders’ register. Changes in the shareholding after the record date of the General Meeting do not affect the right to participate in the General Meeting or the shareholder’s voting rights.

The registration period for the General Meeting commences on 6 March 2025 at 9.00 a.m. (EET). A shareholder who is registered in the Company’s shareholders’ register and wishes to participate in the General Meeting must register for the Meeting no later than 1 April 2025 at 4.00 p.m. (EEST), by which time the registration must be received.

A shareholder can register for the General Meeting:

a)   via the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025. Electronic registration requires strong identification of the shareholder or their legal representative or proxy with a Finnish, Swedish, or Danish bank ID, or a mobile certificate.
b)   by e-mail. Shareholders registering by e-mail shall submit the registration form available on the Company’s website https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025 or equivalent information to agm@innovatics.fi.
c)   by mail. Shareholders registering by mail shall submit the registration form available on the Company’s website https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025 or equivalent information to Innovatics Oy, General Meeting / Oma Savings Bank Plc, Ratamestarinkatu 13 A, FI-00520 Helsinki
d)   by phone to Innovatics Ltd at +358 10 2818 909 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

In connection with the registration, the shareholder must provide the requested information:
1. his/her name and date of birth or business ID
2. telephone number and/or email address
3. name of the possible assistant or name, date of birth, telephone number and/or e-mail address of the representative
The personal details that shareholders give to Oma Savings Bank Plc will only be used for purposes associated with the General Meeting and processing the relevant registrations.

The shareholder, his/her authorised representative or proxy representative, shall on demand be able to prove his/her identity and/or right of representation.

Further information related to the registration is available by phone during the registration period of the General Meeting at the phone number of Innovatics Ltd. +358 10 2818 909 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

2. Holders of nominee-registered shares

A holder of nominee-registered shares is entitled to participate the General Meeting based on the shares, which would entitle them entry into the shareholders’ register held by Euroclear Finland Oy on the record date for the General Meeting 27 March 2025. Participation also requires that the shareholder is temporarily registered in the shareholders’ register held by Euroclear Finland Oy by 3 April 2025 by 10.00 a.m. (EEST) at the latest. In the case of nominee-registered shares, this is considered as registration for the General Meeting. Changes in the shareholding after the record date of the General Meeting do not affect the right to participate in the General Meeting or the shareholder’s voting rights.

A holder of nominee-registered shares is advised to request well in advance the necessary instructions from their custodian bank regarding temporary registration in the register of shareholders, the issuing of proxy documents and voting instructions, registration, and attendance at the General Meeting. The account manager of the custodian bank shall register the holder of nominee-registered shares who wishes to participate the General Meeting temporarily in the register of shareholders of the Company by the aforementioned date and time at the latest. Further information is also available on the Company’s website at https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

3. Proxy representatives and powers of attorney

Shareholders may participate in the General Meeting and exercise their rights through a representative. Shareholder’s representative must identify himself/herself to the electronic registration service with a strong identification, after which he/she can make the registration on behalf of the shareholder he/she represents. A shareholder’s proxy representative must present a dated proxy or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder at the General Meeting shall present a dated power of attorney or demonstrate their right to represent the shareholder in some other reliable way. If a shareholder is represented by more than one representative at the General Meeting, each of whom represents the shareholder with shares by the shareholder in different book-entry accounts, the shares by held which each representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration for the General Meeting.

Possible powers of attorney are requested to be delivered before the end of the registration period primarily as an attachment in connection with electronic registration or alternatively or by letter to Innovatics Ltd, General Meeting / Oma Savings Bank Plc, Ratamestarinkatu 13 A, FI-00520 Helsinki or by email to agm@innovatics.fi. In addition to the delivery of proxy documents, the shareholder or his/her proxy representative shall arrange for registration at the General Meeting as described above in this notice.

As an alternative to the traditional power of attorney, shareholders may use the electronic authorisation service for authorising the representative. The representative is appointed on the suomi.fi service at www.suomi.fi/e-authorizations (authorisation matter “Representation at the General Meeting”). At the General Meeting Service, the delegate must identify himself/herself with a strong electronic identification when registering, and then the electronic authorisation is automatically verified. Strong electronic identification occurs with bank IDs or mobile certificate. More information about electronic authorisation is available at www.suomi.fi/e-authorizations.

Model proxy documents and voting instructions are available on the Company’s website https://www.omasp.fi/en/annual-general-meeting-year-2025.

4. Other instructions/information

The meeting language is Finnish.

Shareholders present at the General Meeting have the right to ask questions about the matters discussed at the meeting in accordance with Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act. Shareholders may submit questions referred to in Chapter 5, Section 25 of the Limited Liability Companies Act on matters to be discussed at the meeting until 1 April 2025 also by email to lakiasiat@omasp.fi or by letter to Oma Savings Bank Plc, Legal Affairs, Kluuvikatu 3, 6th floor, 00100 Helsinki. The management of the Company will respond to such questions submitted in advance in writing at the General Meeting. At the time of asking a question, the shareholder shall provide an adequate explanation of his/her shareholding.

Changes in shareholding after the record date of the General Meeting do not affect the right to participate in the General Meeting or the shareholder’s number of votes.

On the date of the notice to the meeting, 28 February 2025, Oma Savings Bank Plc has a total of 33,292,771 shares representing the same amount of votes. The Company holds a total of 136,647 of its own shares which are not entitled to vote at the General Meeting.

Oma Savings Bank Plc

Board of Directors

For more information:

Hanna Sirkiä, CLO, tel. +358 44 022 4604, hanna.sirkia@omasp.fi
Minna Sillanpää, CCO, tel. +358 50 66592, minna.sillanpaa@omasp.fi

DISTRIBUTION
Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd
Major media
www.omasp.fi

OmaSp is a solvent and profitable Finnish bank. About 500 professionals provide nationwide services through OmaSp’s 48 branch offices and digital service channels to over 200,000 private and corporate customers. OmaSp focuses primarily on retail banking operations and provides its clients with a broad range of banking services both through its own balance sheet as well as by acting as an intermediary for its partners’ products. The intermediated products include credit, investment and loan insurance products. OmaSp is also engaged in mortgage banking operations.

OmaSp core idea is to provide personal service and to be local and close to its customers, both in digital and traditional channels. OmaSp strives to offer premium level customer experience through personal service and easy accessibility. In addition, the development of the operations and services is customer-oriented. The personnel is committed and OmaSp seeks to support their career development with versatile tasks and continuous development. A substantial part of the personnel also own shares in OmaSp.

Attachments
- Annex 1. OmaSp Renumeration Policy 2025
- Annex 2. Oma Savings Bank Plc – Articles of Association
The MIL Network –
February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI: The Board of Directors of Oma Savings Bank Plc launches a new program period for the share savings plan for all personnel

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

OMA SAVINGS BANK PLC, STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 28 FEBRUARY 2025 AT 9.00 A.M., OTHER INFORMATION DISCLOSED TO THE RULES OF THE EXCHANGE

The Board of Directors of Oma Savings Bank Plc launches a new program period for the share savings plan for all personnel

The Board of Directors of Oma Savings Bank Plc (“OmaSp or Company”) has decided to continue the employee share savings plan (“OmaOsake”) established in February 2024.The details of the new plan period correspond to the details of the previous plan period.

The OmaOsake offers the personnel the opportunity to invest part of their regular salary in the Company’s shares. By encouraging employees to acquire and own shares in the Company, the Company seeks to align the objectives of shareholders and employees in order to increase the value of the Company in the long term. The aim is also to support employee motivation and commitment as well as the Company’s corporate culture and management model.

The OmaOsake consists of annually commencing plan periods, each with a 12-month savings period followed by a holding period of approximately two years.

Under the OmaOsake, employees save part of their salary, and the savings are used to subscribe for Oma Savings Bank Plc shares (“savings shares”) twice a year in directed share issues arranged by the Company in connection with interim reports. The intention is that the shares will be offered for subscription in share issues at a discount of 10 percent.

Participants have the opportunity to receive one free matching share (gross) per two savings shares or one savings share, depending on the achievement of the performance criteria. If the performance criteria are not fulfilled, the participants will receive one matching share per three savings shares. As a rule, the receipt of the matching shares is subject to continued employment and holding of savings shares for the holding period ending 31 March 2028. The second savings period starts on 1 April 2025 and ends on 31 March 2026.

The potential reward will be paid partly in shares and cash after the end of the holding period. The cash proportion is intended to cover taxes and statutory social security contributions arising from the reward. The matching shares are freely transferable after they have been recorded on the participant’s book-entry account. Savings shares and matching shares are ordinary shares in Oma Savings Bank Plc entitling to dividends.

In accordance with financial sector legislation, the rewards for certain persons working in risk-taking positions will be paid in a deferred schedule so that the matching shares will be paid to the participants in five instalments over a period of approximately four years after the end of the holding period. In this case, the payment of the reward instalment is followed by a one-year retention period, during which the participant cannot transfer the shares paid as reward.

During the 2025–2028 plan period, the OmaOsake will be offered to approximately 600 employees of the Company, including members of the Management Team and the CEO.

The gross value of the matching shares to be paid based on the second plan period shall not exceed approximately EUR 1,368,000, which, if calculated at a share price EUR 11.00 and assuming that savings shares have been offered at a discount of 10 per cent, corresponds to a maximum total value of approximately 138,000 Oma Savings Bank Plc’s shares, including the proportion to be paid in cash. The final value of the matching shares depends on the number of participants, the number of savings shares acquired by the participants and the fulfilment of the performance criteria.

Oma Savings Bank Plc

Additional information:
Minna Sillanpää, CCO, tel. +358 50 66592, minna.sillanpaa@omasp.fi

DISTRIBUTION
Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd
Major media
www.omasp.fi

OmaSp is a solvent and profitable Finnish bank. About 500 professionals provide nationwide services through OmaSp’s 48 branch offices and digital service channels to over 200,000 private and corporate customers. OmaSp focuses primarily on retail banking operations and provides its clients with a broad range of banking services both through its own balance sheet as well as by acting as an intermediary for its partners’ products. The intermediated products include credit, investment and loan insurance products. OmaSp is also engaged in mortgage banking operations.

OmaSp core idea is to provide personal service and to be local and close to its customers, both in digital and traditional channels. OmaSp strives to offer premium level customer experience through personal service and easy accessibility. In addition, the development of the operations and services is customer-oriented. The personnel is committed and OmaSp seeks to support their career development with versatile tasks and continuous development. A substantial part of the personnel also own shares in OmaSp.

The MIL Network –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI: 7/2025・Trifork Group AG – Initiation of share buyback program
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Company announcement no. 7 / 2025
Schindellegi, Switzerland – 28 February 2025

Initiation of share buyback program

Today, Trifork Group AG (“Trifork”) announces that the Board of Directors has decided to initiate a share buyback program of up to DKK 14.92 million (approximately EUR 2.0 million).

The share buyback program is initiated pursuant to the decision of the Board of Directors taken on 28 February 2025 to acquire own registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.10 each.

The purpose of the program is to meet Trifork’s obligations pursuant to the employee stock program and potentially to reduce the share capital by cancellation of shares, if and to the extent so decided in the future by the Board of Directors, by use of the new capital band set forth in the articles of association of Trifork, which were approved by the annual general meeting on 19 April 2024.

The share buyback program is planned to run from 4 March 2025 up to and including no later than 30 June 2025. The buyback program will not be active from 9 April to 15 April 2025.

The share buyback program will be executed in accordance with EU Market Abuse Regulation, EU Regulation no. 596/2014 of 16 April 2014 and the provisions of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 of 8 March 2016 (the “Safe Harbour Regulation”).

Trifork has appointed Danske Bank A/S as lead manager of the share buyback program. Under a separate agreement, Danske Bank A/S will within the announced limits buy back shares on behalf of Trifork and make related trading decisions independently of and without influence by Trifork.

The share buyback program will be implemented under the following terms:
- The maximum total consideration for shares bought back will be DKK 14.92 million (approximately EUR 2.0 million).
- The maximum number of shares to be bought back is 400,000, equivalent to 2.0% of the outstanding registered number of shares of Trifork.
- The maximum number of shares that may be purchased per daily market session may not exceed 25.0% of the average daily volume of Trifork’s shares traded on Nasdaq Copenhagen during the preceding 20 trading days.
- Shares cannot be bought back at a price exceeding the higher of (i) the share price of the last independent transaction on Nasdaq Copenhagen, and (ii) the highest independent bid on the shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen.
- On a weekly basis, Trifork will announce transactions made under the share buyback program in accordance with the reporting obligations imposed by the Safe Harbour Regulation.
- The shares will be acquired through public trading on Nasdaq Copenhagen.
- Trifork is entitled to suspend or terminate the share buyback program at any time. Such a decision will be disclosed in a company announcement.
Prior to the launch of the share buyback program, Trifork holds 289,640 treasury shares corresponding to 1.5% of the total share capital.

Investor and media contact
Frederik Svanholm, Group Investment Director & Head of Investor Relations
frsv@trifork.com , +41 79 357 73 17

About Trifork
Trifork is a pioneering global technology partner, empowering enterprise and public sector customers with innovative solutions. With 1,229 professionals across 73 business units in 16 countries, Trifork delivers expertise in inspiring, building, and running advanced software solutions across diverse sectors, including public administration, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, energy, financial services, retail, and real estate. Trifork Labs, the Group’s R&D hub, drives innovation by investing in and developing synergistic and high-potential technology companies. Trifork Group AG is a publicly listed company on Nasdaq Copenhagen. Learn more at trifork.com.

Attachment
- CA_7_2025_Buyback
The MIL Network –
February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Renewal of the Bilateral Swap Arrangement between Japan and India

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Japan and India renewed the Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) effective today (Feb. 28, 2025).

The Bank of Japan, acting as agent for the Minister of Finance of Japan, and the Reserve Bank of India signed the second Amendment and Restatement Agreement of the BSA. The BSA is a two-way arrangement where both authorities can swap their local currencies in exchange for the US Dollar. The size of the BSA remains unchanged, that is, up to 75 billion US Dollars.

Japan and India believe that the BSA, which aims to strengthen and complement other financial safety nets, will further deepen financial cooperation between the two countries and contribute to regional and global financial stability.

(Puneet Pancholy)
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2024-2025/2272

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Result of the Daily Variable Rate Repo (VRR) auction held on February 28, 2025

Source: Reserve Bank of India

Tenor	3-day
Notified Amount (in ₹ crore)	25,000
Total amount of bids received (in ₹ crore)	16,258
Amount allotted (in ₹ crore)	16,258
Cut off Rate (%)	6.26
Weighted Average Rate (%)	6.27
Partial Allotment Percentage of bids received at cut off rate (%)	N.A.

Ajit Prasad
Deputy General Manager
(Communications)

Press Release: 2024-2025/2271

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI China: Announcement on Open Market Operations No.40 [2025]

Source: Peoples Bank of China

Announcement on Open Market Operations No.40 [2025]

(Open Market Operations Office, February 28, 2025)

In order to keep the liquidity adequate in the banking system, the People’s Bank of China conducted reverse repo operations in the amount of RMB284.5 billion through quantity bidding at a fixed interest rate on February 28, 2025.

Details of the Reverse Repo Operations

Maturity

Volume

Rate

7 days

RMB284.5 billion

1.50%

Date of last update Nov. 29 2018

2025年02月28日

MIL OSI China News –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI Economics: Money Market Operations as on February 27, 2025

Source: Reserve Bank of India


(Amount in ₹ crore, Rate in Per cent)

	Volume (One Leg)	Weighted Average Rate	Range
A. Overnight Segment (I+II+III+IV)	5,68,518.08	6.23	5.15-6.65
I. Call Money	18,397.29	6.31	5.15-6.40
II. Triparty Repo	3,97,349.95	6.21	5.90-6.32
III. Market Repo	1,51,241.64	6.27	5.75-6.45
IV. Repo in Corporate Bond	1,529.20	6.41	6.40-6.65
B. Term Segment
I. Notice Money**	224.50	6.28	5.80-6.45
II. Term Money^@@	910.00	–	6.50-7.25
III. Triparty Repo	380.00	6.40	6.40-6.40
IV. Market Repo	633.79	6.61	6.35-6.62
V. Repo in Corporate Bond	0.00	–	–

	Auction Date	Tenor (Days)	Maturity Date	Amount	Current Rate / Cut off Rate
C. Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) & Standing Deposit Facility (SDF)
I. Today’s Operations
1. Fixed Rate
2. Variable Rate^&
(I) Main Operation
(a) Repo
(b) Reverse Repo
(II) Fine Tuning Operations
(a) Repo	Thu, 27/02/2025	1	Fri, 28/02/2025	49,955.00	6.26
(b) Reverse Repo
(III) Long Term Operations^
(a) Repo
(b) Reverse Repo
3. MSF^#	Thu, 27/02/2025	1	Fri, 28/02/2025	1,334.00	6.50
4. SDF^Δ#	Thu, 27/02/2025	1	Fri, 28/02/2025	1,03,098.00	6.00
5. Net liquidity injected from today’s operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*				-51,809.00
II. Outstanding Operations
1. Fixed Rate
2. Variable Rate^&
(I) Main Operation
(a) Repo	Fri, 21/02/2025	14	Fri, 07/03/2025	41,046.00	6.26
(b) Reverse Repo
(II) Fine Tuning Operations
(a) Repo
(b) Reverse Repo
(III) Long Term Operations^
(a) Repo	Fri, 21/02/2025	45	Mon, 07/04/2025	57,951.00	6.26
	Fri, 14/02/2025	49	Fri, 04/04/2025	75,003.00	6.28
	Fri, 07/02/2025	56	Fri, 04/04/2025	50,010.00	6.31
(b) Reverse Repo
3. MSF^#
4. SDF^Δ#
D. Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) Availed from RBI^$				9,095.71
E. Net liquidity injected from outstanding operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*				2,33,105.71
F. Net liquidity injected (outstanding including today’s operations) [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*				1,81,296.71
G. Cash Reserves Position of Scheduled Commercial Banks
(i) Cash balances with RBI as on		February 27, 2025		9,42,396.93
(ii) Average daily cash reserve requirement for the fortnight ending		March 07, 2025		9,22,740.00
H. Government of India Surplus Cash Balance Reckoned for Auction as on^¥		February 27, 2025		49,955.00
I. Net durable liquidity [surplus (+)/deficit (-)] as on		February 07, 2025		-1,973.00
^@ Based on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL).
– Not Applicable / No Transaction.
** Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 2 to 14 days tenor.
^@@ Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 15 days to one year tenor.
^$ Includes refinance facilities extended by RBI.
^& As per the Press Release No. 2019-2020/1900 dated February 06, 2020.
^Δ As per the Press Release No. 2022-2023/41 dated April 08, 2022.
* Net liquidity is calculated as Repo+MSF+SLF-Reverse Repo-SDF.
^¥ As per the Press Release No. 2014-2015/1971 dated March 19, 2015.
^# As per the Press Release No. 2023-2024/1548 dated December 27, 2023.
^ As per the Press Release No. 2024-2025/2013 dated January 27, 2025, Press Release No. 2024-2025/2138 dated February 12, 2025, and Press Release No. 2024-2025/2209 dated February 20, 2025.
Ajit Prasad Deputy General Manager (Communications)
Press Release: 2024-2025/2269

MIL OSI Economics –

February 28, 2025

MIL-OSI China: Entrepreneurs to be provided policy support

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

China will ramp up efforts to provide more effective financial and policy support for young entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners as part of a broader push to invigorate the economy and promote higher-quality employment.

Seven central government departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, recently issued a guideline aimed at optimizing the business environment and fostering more individual entrepreneurs and startups.

The guideline underscores the importance of cultivating entrepreneurial awareness, particularly among young people. Universities and vocational colleges are encouraged to organize innovation-related activities and competitions while integrating more entrepreneurship-focused resources into their curricula.

College graduates, migrant workers, demobilized military personnel and people having trouble finding jobs due to financial or physical difficulties will be the key beneficiaries of the government’s support. They will be provided with opportunities to gain hands-on experience at well-established companies, the guideline says.

Local authorities are encouraged to use digital tools to create entrepreneurial simulation platforms, allowing aspiring business owners to gain immersive, real-world experience in company management, marketing and commercial operations.

The guideline also calls for improved public services for entrepreneurs. Local governments can establish mentorship programs by inviting successful business leaders, investors and experts to provide guidance.

For those whose ventures fail, authorities are urged to offer assistance in labor relations and social security, as well as provide loan support for those seeking a second chance.

The government will also enhance financial support by expanding tax reductions, offering low-interest loans and providing one-time subsidies to eligible entrepreneurs.

Banks are encouraged to streamline their approval processes to facilitate financing for startups.

Additionally, China plans to promote entrepreneurship by highlighting success stories and awarding individuals who create significant employment opportunities or contribute to industrial development.

Li Chang’an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in easing employment pressure and generating job opportunities.

“Our surveys show that a self-employed individual can create three to five jobs, while a small private startup can generate about 10 jobs,” he said, adding that innovation and entrepreneurship have long been part of China’s national strategy to drive technological progress and economic growth.

MIL OSI China News –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI China: UN humanitarians work to improve living conditions for Gazans

Source: China State Council Information Office

Israeli soldiers prevent displaced Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin from getting back to their houses in the Jenin refugee camp, on Feb. 19, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

The increasing number of kitchens, water points and healthcare facilities signal continuing improvements in Gazan residents’ challenging living conditions, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the world body and its partners seize every opportunity to scale up the provision of life-saving aid.

“Partners working on food security report that, as of the third week of February, some 860,000 cooked meals prepared in around 180 kitchens were being distributed daily, an increase of more than 10 percent compared to 780,000 meals in the second week of February,” OCHA said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that subsidized bread is available at 24 retail shops in the south, allowing safe access to basic staples without overcrowding. As part of daily production, WFP delivers an average of 54,000 free bread bundles to families daily. The market relies heavily on WFP wheat flour as the primary or only source of wheat flour in Gaza.

WFP said at least four food distribution points have been re-established in North Gaza Governorate to ease the burden on families forced to travel long distances for food with increased transport costs and protection risks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to support the health response, providing supplies to three hospitals and five health partners that will serve 250,000 people across the Gaza Strip. In Gaza City, the WHO supported the expansion of the triage and emergency department capacity in Al-Shifa Hospital with tents and an additional 20 beds.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) delivered essential health kits, pediatric medicines and newborn supplies for more than 20,000 people to Al Awda Hospital in North Gaza.

OCHA said the latest polio campaign wound up on Wednesday after reaching more than 600,000 children under 10.

The office said work continues to improve access to water and sanitation with two water points established and expanded in the North Gaza Governorate. Two sections of water networks were also repaired to support long-term water provision to communities in Khan Younis.

More than 100,000 students have enrolled in school following the start of the new academic year on Sunday. So far, 165 public schools across Gaza have reopened. For most students, it is their first time returning to in-person learning in 16 months.

However, OCHA reported a dangerous picture in the West Bank. The office said Israeli military operations continue in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, leading to further casualties and displacement and hindering access to healthcare, water, electricity and other critical services.

“The situation across the West Bank is deeply alarming,” OCHA said, once again stressing that international law must be respected and civilians protected.

MIL OSI China News –

February 28, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Lee Introduces the Saving Privacy Act for 119th Congress
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Utah Mike Lee

WASHINGTON – Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Saving Privacy Act, a bill to end government abuse of Americans’ financial information. For years, federal agencies have been overreaching in their surveillance, collecting vast amounts of personal financial data from law-abiding citizens without just cause. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) is an original co-sponsor of the bill.

“The federal government has no business surveilling the financial activities of millions of innocent Americans,” said Senator Lee. “The current system erodes the privacy rights of citizens, while doing little to effectively catch true financial criminals. My Saving Privacy Act ensures that Americans’ personal information is protected and that government agencies operate within the bounds of the Constitution.”

“Big government has no place in law-abiding Americans’ personal finances. It is a massive overreach of the government and a gross violation of their privacy,” said Senator Rick Scott. “That is why I am teaming up with Senator Lee so that we can protect Americans’ personal financials for good. Our Saving Privacy Act will allow federal agencies to go after criminals while also protecting innocent Americans’ data. This is commonsense legislation, and I am urging my colleagues to support its immediate passage.”

“For decades, outdated banking regulations have subjected citizens to excessive financial surveillance, compelling institutions to enforce intrusive measures that directly led to the debanking of innocent Americans spending their own money. The Saving Privacy Act offers comprehensive reforms, striking a balance that restores consumer rights, establishes sensible standards for innovators while curbing illicit activities, and reinvigorates the commitment to sound consumer financial privacy. –Yaël Ossowski, Deputy Director at the Consumer Choice Center.

“Senator Lee has been an indefatigable leader in the effort to end the federal government’s mass surveillance of Americans financial lives. A precondition of liberty is the ability to go about your business without the government tracking your every move, and the Saving Privacy Act is an important step in the right direction. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance thanks Senator Lee for his hard work and commitment to preserving liberty and privacy.” –David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance President

“This kind of reform restores the proper balance—as provided by the Fourth Amendment—between Americans’ privacy rights and law enforcement’s ability to gather evidence to enforce laws. It would protect individuals’ financial privacy and improve federal agencies’ abilities to prosecute criminal activity rather than sift through millions of low-value reports. This kind of reform is long overdue.” – Norbert Michel, Jennifer Schulp, and Nicholas Anthony of the Cato Institute

Government surveillance efforts have been largely ineffective, as demonstrated by the dismal success rate of suspicious activity reports (SARs) submitted to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In FY2023, financial institutions submitted 25.4 million SARs and currency transaction reports (CTRs), yet less than 0.3% of these reports resulted in relevant IRS-CI and FBI cases.

In recent years, FinCEN and the FBI surveilled the financial transactions of individuals and solicited banks for information on purchases related to “Trump,” “MAGA,” firearms, and even religious texts. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has quietly been constructing a centralized database, the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), designed to track every single stock market transaction and the personal information of millions of Americans without any congressional approval.

Senator Lee’s bill, the Saving Privacy Act, seeks to curb these abuses and restore Fourth Amendment protections for all Americans.

Key Provisions of the Saving Privacy Act:
- Repeals the Bank Secrecy Act’s SAR and CTR reporting requirements while maintaining recordkeeping provisions.
- Repeals the Corporate Transparency Act.
- Strengthens Fourth Amendment protections, bolstering warrant requirements in the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978.
- Repeals the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) database.
- Requires congressional approval for any new databases that collect personally identifiable information of U.S. citizens.
- Prohibits the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency.
- Requires congressional authorization for financial regulations deemed major rules.
- Institutes penalties for federal employees who illegally seek constitutionally protected financial information.
- Establishes a private right of action for Americans and financial institutions harmed by illicit government activity.
For bill text, click HERE.
For a two-pager, click HERE.
MIL OSI USA News –
February 28, 2025

Category: Banking

Inflation

Income and consumption

Economic growth and labour market

Housing and credit access

Notes

Contribution to Bancaria by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, based on remarks at the Crypto Asset Lab Conference on 17 January 2025

A digital euro for everyday payments

Day-to-day payments in the euro area by payment instrument, in value terms

National card schemes in the euro area

Benefits for consumers and merchants

Fostering competition and innovation in an integrated payments ecosystem

Making this vision a shared reality

The role of central bank money in developing a European market for digital assets

The potential of new technologies

The role of central bank money and the Eurosystem’s exploratory work

Next steps

Conclusion

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10,000 FPOs Achieved under Government’s Flagship Scheme

A Step Towards Atmnirbhar Krishi