Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem, August 6, 2025 (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
During the visit, the delegation is expected to advance a series of economic cooperation agreements between Israel and India, paving the way to deepen bilateral ties and expand mutual investments.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and senior Finance Ministry officials departed on Sunday for an economic-diplomatic delegation to India.
During the visit, the delegation is expected to advance a series of economic cooperation agreements between Israel and India, paving the way to deepen bilateral ties and expand mutual investments.
Senior Finance Ministry officials participating in the delegation include Director-General Ilan Rom, Chief Economist Shmuel Abramzon, Accountant-General Yahli Rotenberg, and Israel Securities Authority chairman Sefi Zinger.
Smotrich is scheduled to meet with Indian ministers and senior government officials, as well as representatives of industry and the Indian business community. He will also hold a special meeting with members of the country’s Jewish community.
(Bloomberg) — China’s highly anticipated Finance Ministry briefing on Saturday lacked the firepower that equity investors had hoped for, indicating that the volatility that’s gripped the market following a world-beating rally will likely extend.
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While Finance Minister Lan Fo’an promised more support for the struggling property sector and hinted at greater government borrowing to shore up the economy, the briefing didn’t produce a headline dollar figure for fresh fiscal stimulus that the markets had sought. A lack of new incentives to boost consumption, which has been a weak link in the economy, is another reason why traders may feel disappointed.
The ministry “tried its best,” but there is a large gap between what was announced and what the market was expecting, said Shen Meng, a director at Beijing-based boutique investment bank Chanson & Co. “So the overall sentiment for investors is negative.”
Patience has been wearing thin among investors, who have clamored for Beijing to announce big-bang fiscal measures to help sustain the rally sparked by the stimulus blitz that authorities unleashed in late September. The CSI 300 Index, a benchmark of onshore equities, capped its biggest weekly loss since late July on Friday, with volatility rising ahead of the MOF briefing.
A further unwinding of the rally risks fueling concern that equities are heading for yet another false dawn, which may bring more selling pressure. The market has been caught in a start-stop cycle of gains and losses a few times before as Beijing’s piecemeal approach to stimulus produced only brief rebounds.
Local governments will be allowed to issue special bonds to buy unsold homes and turn them into subsidized housing, Lan and his deputies said on Saturday, while refraining from putting a price tag on any additional stimulus. Lan also hinted at room for issuing more sovereign bonds and greater government spending, steps that could be announced later this month or early November.
Prior to the weekend, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected China to deploy as much as 2 trillion yuan ($283 billion) in fresh fiscal stimulus on Saturday, including potential subsidies, consumption vouchers and financial support for families with children.
“The room for further fiscal stimulus is still on the table,” said Britney Lam, head of long-short equities for Magellan Investments Holdings Ltd. In the meantime, “markets will likely see further profit taking,” she said.
Inflation data released on Sunday is likely to add to investor concerns. It showed that China’s consumer prices rose less than forecast in September, while factory-gate charges fell for a 24th straight month, underscoring the need for further policy support to help the economy break out of deflation.
The CSI 300 Index slid 3.3% last week, but it’s still up 21% from its close on Sept. 23, the day before China’s central bank announced a broad package of measures that included an interest-rate cut and liquidity support for the equity market. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 6.6% last week after surging more than 30% in the previous three weeks.
While the epic rebound in Chinese shares has spurred the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRock Inc. to upgrade the market, it has also drawn skepticism from others such as Invesco Ltd. and Morgan Stanley who say stocks have already run too far too fast.
What’s Next?
Investors will soon turn attention to the next major policy briefing in the coming weeks — from the Communist Party-controlled parliament that oversees the budget — for details of more stimulus. At its October meeting last year, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved additional sovereign debt and raised the budget-deficit ratio.
Traders will keep waiting for more details after the finance ministry on Saturday used phrases such as “relatively large amount, or relatively large room” to describe the measures, said Frances Cheung, strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
“On balance, the market is unlikely to get excited,” he said, when asked about how stocks may react on Monday.
China’s sovereign bonds were little changed on the measures announced on Saturday. By noon on the day, the 10-year yield had erased an earlier drop of as much as two basis points, according to traders, who asked not to be identified as they are not allowed to comment publicly on the rates market.
A strengthened fiscal push would likely weigh on China’s bonds by encouraging traders to move funds into riskier investments with potentially better returns. An increased supply of debt may also sap liquidity in the financial system, making it harder for the market to absorb the entire amount.
The yield curve will probably move lower, given debt issuance this year may come below market consensus, said Zhaopeng Xing, a senior strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. Going forward, “we expect 1 trillion yuan of ultra-long treasury and 1 trillion yuan of local bonds to be announced,” he added.
–With assistance from Abhishek Vishnoi, Zhu Lin, Wenjin Lv, Shuiyu Jing and April Ma.
Top 50 defaulters have frauded ₹92,000 crore from banking system, information provided by Finance Ministry in Lok Sabha revealed. This list is led by Gitanjali Gems with over ₹7,800 crore of fraud. Meanwhile, the Ministry also said that public sector banks have recovered over ₹1-lakh crore from the written-off amount.
In response to a question, Minister of State in Finance Ministry, Bhagwat Karad furnished the list, as a part of written reply, which has fugitive economic offender Mehul Choksi’s firm Gitanjali Gems on top while his relative and another economic offender, Nirav Modi’s firm Firestar is at the 49 th place with ₹803 crore of amount owned to banks. Both are accused in PNB scam related with fraudulent letter of undertaking worth ₹10,000 crore issued by the bank.
Among top ten defaulters, other prominent names include Era Infra (₹5,879 crore), Rei Agro (₹4,803 crore), ABG Shipyard (₹3,708 crore), Winsome Diamonds (₹2,931 crore) and Rotomac Global (₹2,893 crore).
“Comprehensive steps have been taken by the Government to deter defaulters, to take effective action against them and to recover the default amount from them, including recovery from written off loans. It has enabled PSBs to recover an aggregate amount of ₹4,80,111 crore during the last five financial years, of which ₹1-lakh crore is from written-off accounts,” Karad said.
He also informed the House that as per RBI instructions, wilful defaulters are not sanctioned any additional facilities by banks or financial institutions, and their unit is debarred from floating new ventures for five years. Such people and companies with wilful defaulters as promoters/directors have been debarred from accessing capital markets to raise funds.
The central government has released Rs 7,183.42 crore as revenue deficit grant (RDG) to 14 states, which includes Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
The commission suggested giving the fourteen states a total PDRD grant of Rs 86,201 crore for the current fiscal year. The total amount of revenue deficit grants given to the states so far in FY23 has increased to Rs 57,467.33 crore with the release of the eighth instalment for the month of November 2022, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry.
“The Department of Expenditure released the 8th monthly instalment of the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit (PDRD) Grant of Rs 7,183.42 crore to 14 states as per the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission,” the ministry said in a press note.
Under Article 275 of the Constitution, the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grants are made available to the States. According to the recommendations of the successive Finance Commissions, grants are given to the States in order to close the revenue account gap left by devolution.
The Fifteenth Finance Commission determined the eligibility of states to receive this grant and the amount of grant for the period from 2020–2021 to 2025–2026 based on the gap between the state’s estimated revenue and expenditure after accounting for the estimated devolution during this period.
