Heightened volatility in financial markets and surges in prices of commodities especially of energy, metals, grain futures and fertilizers – have accentuated risks to growth, inflation and financial stability. Like other emerging market economies (EMEs), India too faces major risks, the immediate ones being soaring crude prices and tightening financial conditions.
Although the retirement of the baby boomers will be an important milestone in the demographic transition – the oldest baby boomers will be eligible for Social Security benefits starting next year – the change in the nation's demographic structure is not just a temporary phenomenon related to the large relative size of the baby-boom generation.