India’s inflation accelerates; food costs increase

India’s inflation accelerated as food costs increased, adding pressure on the central bank to extend last year’s fastest round of monetary tightening in Asia.

The benchmark wholesale-price index rose 8.43 percent in December from a year earlier after a 7.48 percent gain in November, according to a commerce ministry statement in New Delhi today. The median forecast of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an 8.4 percent increase.

“Inflation is worrying and is a potential constraint on the economy’s growth potential,” Robert Prior-Wandesforde, the Singapore-based head of India and Southeast Asia economics at Credit Suisse Group AG, said before the release. “The central bank is likely to step in and hike rates.” Read more...