India urges Fed to accept a stronger greenback

Mumbai

INDIA'S central bank chief said the US will have to accept a stronger exchange rate as the Federal Reserve turns towards raising interest rates for the first time since 2006.

"The Fed will have to start at some point normalising interest rates," Raghuram Rajan, 52, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV India at the Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai. "Unless the Fed starts doing it, others aren't going to follow suit. And the Fed, when it does that, will have to accept some appreciation of the dollar simply because it's the first one out of the box." He also warned Indian firms against borrowing in dollars, likening it to "Russian roulette".