'RBI may hike interest rate'

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may yet raise interest rates before a scheduled policy review in July, HSBC said on Monday, after data showed India’s economy grew an expected 8.6 per cent in the final quarter of fiscal 2009/10.

“Sure, euro jitters may have left policy-makers across the world in a more accommodative mood, but in India tightening is now needed to avoid a hard landing later on,” Frederic Neumann, Managing Director and co-head of Asian Economics Research at HSBC, wrote in a note.