India cuts planned extra borrowing to 200b rupees

Mumbai

INDIA said it would cut back on planned additional borrowing for the current fiscal year, providing relief to the nation's sovereign bond market battered by concerns about rising inflation and worsening public finances.

The government will sell 200 billion rupees (S$4.1 billion) of debt, down from 500 billion rupees extra announced less than a month ago, the finance ministry said in a statement on Wednesday after a "review of trends of revenue receipts and expenditure pattern".

The reduction follows expectations of a higher dividend from the central bank, a finance ministry official told reporters in New Delhi, asking not to be identified …