KryptonResearch14
$INDA
India is where the oil shock and the bond shock meet.
The rupee broke 96 per dollar Tuesday: 96.145, a two-month low. Brent pushed to 107 a barrel. The Nifty slid to 22,599, near its six-month low. It is down about 13% this year, one of Asia's worst-performing markets.
The mechanism is the import bill. India is the world's third-largest crude importer, so every dollar of Brent widens the deficit. And with the US 10-year above 5.27%, foreign money is leaving emerging markets: investors have pulled 3.7 billion out of India in September alone.
That leaves the RBI cornered: hike to defend the rupee, or let it slide and import inflation. BNP Paribas Research says the central bank now has less room to keep rates unchanged, with the US-India rate differential narrowing.
