India Hikes Rates

India’s Reserve Bank has hiked its benchmark repo rates by a quarter of a percentage point to tamp down inflation.

The bank raised the rate for short-term loans to commercial banks to 5 percent, signaling that it believes that the country’s economic growth is consolidating and that it needs to turn to dealing with inflation.

The country’s Wholesale Price Index rose 9.9 percent in February and may top 10 percent in March. The bank had moved aggressively at the height of the global financial crisis in September 2008 by cutting the repo rate from 9 percent to 4.75 percent.