India inflation accelerates

Indian inflation quickened more than estimated in May, an acceleration that may fail to prevent an interest-rate cut next week to prop up slowing growth. The benchmark wholesale-price index rose 7.55 per cent last month from a year earlier, after climbing 7.23 per cent in April, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. The median of 37 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 7.5 per cent advance. Indian economic expansion weakened to a near-decade low last quarter, hurt by faltering efforts to open up the economy, a moderation in investment and the impact of Europe’s debt crisis on exports. The slowdown has added pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to reduce borrowing costs at its June 18 policy meeting, even as the nation struggles with the fastest inflation among the biggest emerging markets. “It’s a complex situation for the Reserve Bank,” Brinda Jagirdar, Mumbai-based chief economist at State Bank of India Ltd, the nation’s largest lender, said before the report. “Though a weak rupee and continuing inflation limit its headroom, the central bank will reduce borrowing costs since the industrial sector has slowed sharply.”from gulfnes.com