Moody's warns of India's vulnerability to volatile food, energy prices

Says major challenge for countries will be growing demands on fiscal resources to limit impact of price rise

Moody’s Investors Service has warned that India, along with the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are highly vulnerable to volatile food and energy prices in the Asia-Pacific region as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to disrupt supplies and raise the cost of agricultural products, especially cereals and vegetable oils, as well as fertilizers and other agricultural inputs.

This is so because these countries have a higher weighting of energy and food prices in their consumer price index (CPI) baskets, Moody’s said in its report released on Tuesday.

The weighting of energy and food in overall Indian CPI stands at over 55 per