India’s Economic Momentum Stronger Than Global Peers: HSBC MF's Kailash Kulkarni

The Indian fundamentals are very strong in the long term and the country continues to outperform most of the other economies – a trend that would continue for the next several years, Kailash Kulkarni, CEO, HSBC Mutual Fund, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to IANS, Kulkarni said that when people say this is the decade of India, they are absolutely right.

“There is a strong government support, especially around manufacturing and digital adoption, which gives a big plus to this entire growth story of India. When we look at which sectors are likely to do well, we are very bullish on consumer discretionary spending, capital goods, infrastructure and financial services,” Kulkarni noted.

One of the most important things is that per capita income of India has gone up and keeps increasing, that will clearly give a big boost to consumer discretionary spending.

“The financial space is going to grow very fast. When we talk abound the financial services sector, we are not talking about only banks and NBFCs, but also talking about the rest of the vast financial space,” he told IANS.

Whether it is fintech, asset managers, wealth management funds, life insurance companies – these verticals in the financial space are growing very strong.

“This is one of the main reasons why we have seen 20 per cent plus growth rate in the mutual fund industry,” said Kulkarni.

Assets Under Management (AUM) for equity mutual funds rose to Rs 72.2 lakh crore in May, up 4.85 per cent from nearly Rs 70 lakh crore in April, latest data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed.

Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) inflows also reached an all-time high of Rs 26,688 crore in May, from Rs 26,632 crore in April. This growth is largely attributable to market performance, as the Nifty and Sensex delivered strong returns.

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