Inflation puts India on watch for rate increase

MUMBAI: Inflation picked up in India for a second straight month, giving ammunition to the central bank to further tighten monetary policy and squeezing returns for bond investors.

Consumer prices rose 4.87% in May from a year earlier, the statistics ministry said in a statement in New Delhi on Tuesday.

That was broadly in line with the 4.9% median estimate of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It was the highest reading since January and comes on the back of rising food and fuel prices.

“The inflation numbers will keep the RBI on its toes and may take us closer to a rate hike as early as in August when the central bank meets next,” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist of L&T Finance Holdings Ltd in Mumbai. The six-member monetary policy committee is scheduled to meet next on July 31 and Aug 1.

The central bank expects oil averaging around US$78 a barrel to stoke inflation by 30 basis points, complicating its job of keeping inflation at the 4% mid-point of its target band over the medium term.

Policy makers have been expressing their discomfort about underlying price pressures and rising input costs, which companies are passing on to consumers.

Deutsche Bank AG chief India economist Kaushik Das puts core inflation, which strips out volatile fuel and food prices, at 6.2% in May, up from 5.9% in April.

It joined other emerging markets in increasing interest rates.

The Reserve Bank of India last week raised interest rates for the first time since 2014 and also revised its inflation forecast for the fiscal year 2019, with the second-half estimate raised to 4.7% from 4.4%. Higher food grain procurement prices which the government is set to give farmers in coming months is set to push headline inflation higher in the second half, economists say.

Tuesday’s data will do little to comfort bond investors who are sitting on one of the worst returns in Asia. The pick-up in inflation and a depreciating currency have squeezed returns for foreign investors. Even though India’s benchmark 10-year bond yield jumped to more than 8% last week for the first time in three years, that isn’t enough to lure some of the world’s biggest money managers.

Rising US interest rates are another big risk as the Federal Reserve moves to tighten policy again. Emerging markets from Argentina to Indonesia are struggling to contain the fallout on their currencies as foreign investors pull money out of riskier assets.

India’s rupee has been one of Asia’s worst performing currencies this year. — Bloomberg