Reuters
India halts futures trade in key farm commodities to fight inflation
India’s market regulator ordered a year-long suspension of futures trading in key farm commodities on Monday, as the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils, and a major producer of wheat and rice, struggles to tame food inflation. India’s most dramatic move since allowing futures trade in 2003 threatens market confidence by making hedging difficult at a time of record highs in producer prices, weeks after farmers ended protests that led to the scrapping of contentious reforms. “It’s like shooting the messenger, but we have sympathy with the government, because they were worried over edible oil inflation,” Atul Chaturvedi, president of edible oil trade body the Solvent Extractors Association of India, told Reuters.