Top India forecaster expects rate pause

Mumbai

THE most-accurate forecaster for interest rates sees Indian authorities refraining from easing monetary policy on Wednesday, even as the consensus calls for borrowing costs to be cut from a six-year low.

A rate reduction would not serve the oil-importing nation well when rising commodity prices risk stoking inflation and uncertainty around US policies threatens to unsettle the rupee's calm, according to Mole Hau, a Hong Kong-based economist at BNP Paribas SA, ranked No 1 by Bloomberg for predicting the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) rate actions over two years. Foreign holdings of rupee-denominated bonds have fallen at the fastest pace since 2013, as the rate differential between India and the US narrowed.