Indian central bank closes financial markets after attacks in Mumbai
The Indian central bank has closed its financial markets today (Thursday), as further attacks ravage Mumbai, the capital of India’s business sector. Although the markets will be closed, the Indian central bank has stated that it will still be making cash available for the interbank lending markets.
The Asian Chief Economist for private bank Credit Suisse said “Clearly, it will be negative for the sentiment towards India at this point of time, the time when the world is already looking to be highly uncertain in terms of its growth prospects,” after the Mumbai attacks.
He went on to add that “This will be negative for the rupee versus the dollar, but again I want to stress that the impact will be short-lived”.
Elsewhere in Asia, the markets rose on Wednesday’s news that the Chinese government were lowering interest rates from 6.66% to 5.58%, the biggest cut in over a decade. Both the Japanese and Hong Kong markets rose after the announcement by 1.9% and 2.7% respectively.